Dirty Gold War: The Gold Industry's Dark Side | Gold Production | ENDEVR Documentary

in the beginning indigenous people from the amazon believed that gold came from the stars balls of fire exploded from the sky and the shower of meteorites hit the earth in this firestone gold was buried under the ground remaining hidden for thousands of years baselworld is the international show for the watch and jewelry trade where the most prestigious brands reveal their new products each year this is where most of the amazonian gold can be found transformed into watches and jewelry but behind these display cases there is nothing that shows where the gold they contain comes from [Music] here there is no label of origin no traceability the only thing that counts is how the gold shines and how pure it is [Music] is [Music] the origin of more than 90 of gold is uncertain it is a coveted object surrounded by fantasy and for many gold symbolizes luxury but for others around the world it has become a curse responsible for environmental pollution human and now it is [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] um huh [Music] what is the plan of belomont it's a big dam right here that will stop the shingo river and create an artificial lake and by this artificial lake the water will flow and generate energy in the end and it will create a very bad situation for the people who live in the big band of shingu because the big band will dry [Music] at the beginning of the 1960s well before the development of this enormous mining project and the presence of these major corporate groups another invasion came to disrupt life in amazonia [Music] this was when the often illegal gold diggers the garemperos arrived hoping to improve their lot these men were looking for the new eldorado and desperate to get rich quick to extract the gold from the earth they mix mercury with the mud polluting the water and condemning whole territories [Applause] [Music] [Applause] um [Music] [Music] [Music] is to dig the mines and destroy the riverbanks with water hoses hundreds and hundreds of boats equipped with motor pumps suck in the river sediment to extract the gold destroying the flora and fauna and discharging mercury in their wake um [Music] so [Music] so [Music] this photo is the only document left of the hashimo massacre in order to gain access to their land the garimperos came into this yanomami village and killed 16 people men women and children in the photo the survivors are holding baskets that contain the burnt remains of members of their family and their belongings the yanomami land territory is very targeted by mining interests here you have the yanomami territory and we have gold miners inside it in many different places they walk in the rivers where we have the rivers and we have also brazilian miners walking illegally even at the venezuela site whether ayano mummy living as well all over the yanomam land is mining interest when the law passes that allows mining inside the anomaly land all these interests will come out and pressure the animals to walk inside their land [Music] foreign so that's what we call a diamond cut it's not actually got diamonds in it it's just the way we've cut the gold to give it a little bit more sparkle yeah i like that do you like that can i see are you right what about is that you as well you're going to have a yellow one or you want i think um yeah i am no i'm definitely white gold you like that yeah it's beautiful beautiful very very traditional classic classic yeah exactly i've come from the fresh produce industry and the fresh produce industry has had fantastic transparency and traceability for a number of decades now and when i look at the retailing sector of the jewelry industry i think they have been complicit in not investigating sufficiently the quality of their supply chain what i mean by that is there are issues with the mining companies uh in terms of in terms of the way in which they treat people they treat the environment which the retailers have turned a blind eye to it count on the dirty gold [Music] [Music] you ask typically a person about where their wedding ring came from they have no idea they only know that it came from the jewelers shop they have no idea the consequences that purchase could have had to the communities wherever that gold may have come from [Music] millions of illegal miners have set up in the madre de vios region to look for gold tankers deliver over 60 000 liters of gasoline daily to power the pump motors huge amounts of oil and tons of mercury are released into the soil as well [Music] is [Music] [Applause] mercury [Applause] [Music] technology foreign [Applause] [Music] ah [Music] are working illegally in this region of nature reserves and indigenous land in one of the largest areas of biodiversity in the world these gold diggers have already devastated over 120 000 acres of the rainforest [Music] [Music] foreign so [Music] um [Music] during the congo civil war of 2004 rebels sold the production to various refining companies the swiss company was indicted by the trial association that is fighting those responsible for international the search for gold was one of the reasons for the spanish colonization of the americas the 16th century engravings of theodore debris illustrate the nightmare of the conquest of the new world in the battle of kahamarika in the andes debri presents his vision of the execution of the inca emperor atahualpa after the payment of his ransom in gold today multinationals are extracting the metal from these lands is in this footage we can see farmers demonstrating for water rights they refuse to let gold industries tap into their water resources [Applause] the expansion of the yanakocha nemont mine is facing determined opposition from the local population who are organizing to claim their rights the population is [Music] [Music] father arana represents the people's opposition and is mobilizing various farming communities so that they can exercise their democratic rights for many years he has undergone constant pressure from the mine militia and governmental [Music] police [Music] [Music] okay on june 2nd 2000 a truck serving the yanacocha newmont gold mine accidentally spilled over 300 pounds of mercury onto the chorumpampa road severely intoxicating over a thousand people [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] because [Applause] foreign [Music] [Applause] problem [Laughter] foreign [Laughter] foreign afternoon we've continued to work with the local population we put in a program of insurance for all of those people medical insurance for all those people so if there are any mercury related health issues that they're that they're covered by that and and we have a an ongoing risk assessment and evaluation of any potential environmental long-term environmental effects and and we've seen none in that but it is an area that we continue to be very concerned of i mean that as a black eye for us the last time i was here one of the things that we're looking at is whether or not there was a way that we could see a jewelry trade that developed in the in the region [Music] foreign [Music] [Applause] [Music] my [Music] [Applause] m [Music] me [Applause] [Music] faced with a government that is overwhelmed by the demands of the new montgomery the local population and ngos are organizing resistance their battles which are often symbolic stand in stark contrast to the real war that is being waged against them where 18 people have already died during the farmer's demonstrations [Music] for the first time at the cannes film festival the swiss jeweler chopard is presenting three gold items of jewelry and a small gold ingot that have been produced in an eco-friendly way compared to the 2700 tons of gold produced exploitatively each year this ecological awareness in the heart of the world of luxury remains for now largely symbolic [Music] um my your health so on the one side you have a a very pure beautiful metal with great history and on the other side you have this corruption uh this removal of indigenous people you have the poor health and safety standards and you have to ask the large companies what is your part in it irresponsible gold or dirty gold will have a very difficult time because their guts their customers will not want to be associated with the product that in its very essence is responsible for the level of slavery that is going on with this product [Music] so [Music] fair trade has only been in existence for two years and we're a tiny tiny percentage we're talking about doing the first couple of years sort of 30 kilos a year but it's growing we have access now to nearly 500 kilos a year [Music] [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] that was foreign [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] foreign um i actually think that there's almost been like a cartel structure throughout the world in big governments in banks in the large players in the industry to keep us all quiet keep the small people quiet because it suits their purses it doesn't affect them but it does affect millions of other people whilst they're about 15 million artisanal miners they support about 90 million people around the world 90 million people around the world kept in poverty because of a precious metal that actually they own it comes from their lands and we can't continue exploiting these people we have to give them a fair share of their own resource so i think the industry is going to have to wake up very very quickly to do being much more responsible as the energy industries are being being more responsible the car industry is being more responsible the food industry is being more responsible even the military are being more responsible about how they how they're accountable for what their actions are not simple environment [Music] fair these [Music] god [Music] once refined much of the world's gold is turned to ingots and returned to its previous deep sleep underground in vaults what if we decided to end our destruction of the amazon and began replacing this mind gold with these stores and turned our energies instead to returning the planet to its previous health and balance [Music] [Applause] foreign me [Music] oh so far [Music] do [Music] do [Music] [Music] i'm a full [Music] baby you're dealing with the [Music] [Music] where i'm from where i'm [Music] from [Music] there's a box [Music] scratch my back and i will make it me

Channel: ENDEVR

Views: 287,494

Rating: 4.7765265 out of 5

Keywords: Free documentary, documentaries, full documentary, hd documentary, documentary - topic, documentary (tv genre), Business Documentary, gold dirty war, gold industry, gold production, gold production dark side, problems of gold production, mine, gold mine, environmental issues, environment, investigative documentary, endevr documentary

Id: hzrJ9I3AJAQ

Length: 51min 13sec (3073 seconds)

Published: Sun Mar 21 2021

Reddit Comments

[u/YESitsascam]

Does anyone say gold is environmentally friendlier? Usually they just talk shit about bitcoin without considering any alternative or control group.

[u/CaptainRons]

Also last time I checked Bitcoin miners aren’t enslaving people to build a workforce to mine it.

[u/Asum_chum]

No one has ever said this. Ever.

[u/FredRichTX]

Is Silver better?

[u/pynkpanther]

video not available in your country.

sometimes germany/europe feels like 3rd world country

[u/imnotabotareyou]

Ugh now I’m torn and need to buy both

[u/unfuckingstoppable]

more posts about bitcoin's energy usage:

https://old.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/search?q=energy&restrict_sr=on

[u/gold_yuba]

Peter lynch doesn't like this 😂

[u/Hefty_Jicama]

Did they ever interview the girl at 3:28?