A SIMPLE BAND OF GOLD!!

       Gold, like most things in this type of society is dressed up in fancy boxes and displayed in artistically arranged shop windows belying the pollution and destruction involved in its production and all for a small elite of parasites to make a fortune. So the next time you consider that little gold fashion accessory have a thought for how it got to the shop window. Spare a thought for those who have suffered and those who have died, the wildlife that has been destroyed the environment that has been lost and the millions of pounds that have been made by those greedy corporate share holders. A single gold ring leaves in its wake at least 20 tons of mine waste. Approximately 79 tons of waste per ounce of gold.

         Open-pit gold mines essentially abolish the landscape, opening up vast craters, flattening or even inverting mountaintops, and producing 8 to 10 times more waste than underground mining. Cyanide is used by large mining operations to separate gold from ore. Cyanide pollution is a major concern. A rice-grain sized dose of cyanide can be fatal to humans; 1 microgram (one-millionth of a gram) per litre of water can be fatal to fish.

       Metals mining employs just 0.09 percent of the global workforce but consumes as much as 10 percent of world energy. Metals mining is the number one toxic polluter in the United States, responsible for 89% of arsenic releases, 85% of mercury releases, and 84% of lead releases in 2004.

      The world’s largest open pit, the Bingham Canyon mine in Utah, is visible to astronauts from outer space. It measures 1.5 kilometers (1 mile) deep and 4 kilometers (2.5 miles) across.

        120,000 tons of toxic waste spilled from the Baia Mare gold mine in Romania in the year 2000, contaminating the drinking water of 2.5 million people and killing 1,200 tons of fish.

        In May 1998 the Kyrgyzstan Kumtor mining project was responsible for the “accidental” dumping of 2 tons of sodium cyanide into the local rivers. June 1998 almost 2,000 kg of chemicals spilled into the Barskoon River. July 1998, in the same area, a container truck spilled 70 litres of nitric acid. During this period 3 people died and hundreds were poisoned by sodium cyanide. This picture is repeated across the world time and time again where ever gold is being mined. All along this trail of destruction and poisoning big business is making big money and at the end of the trail there is a simple band of gold on somebody’s finger. There should be a smell of dead fish from the finger.

ann arky’s home.

Advertisement