Papua's Gold Rush Creates Environmental Devastation

TIMIKA, PAPUA, INDONESIA - FEBRUARY 02: A view of dead trees affected by gold mine waste, known as tailings on February 2, 2017 in Timika, Papua Province, Indonesia. Indonesia produces over 70 billion dollars in gold a year and is home to the largest gold mine and the third largest copper mine in the world, the Grasberg mine, which is located at West Papua. According to reports, the Grasberg mine, owned Freeport McMoRan, dumps as much as 200,000 tonnes of mine waste directly into the Aikwa delta system every day, turning thousands of hectares of forest and mangroves into wasteland. Indonesia continues to face various environmental problems since the gold rush and has one of the worst mercury problems from small-scale gold mining where miners usually operate without required permits. On the average, miners are able to get one gram of gold per day, which is equivalent to around 400,000 rupiah or US$30. Indigenous tribes in West Papua such as the Kamoro are still trying to make a living from fishing and foraging for food. They claim that the tailing from the gold mines have raised the riverbed, suffocating fishes, oysters and shrimps which the Kamoro people rely on for food and their livelihood. (Photo by Ulet Ifansasti/Getty Images)