...Juan Apaza...[d]escending into an icy tunnel 17,000 feet up in the Peruvian Andes, the 44-year-old miner...faces the dangers that have killed many of his fellow miners...to extract the gold that the world demands...sinking in its own toxic waste and lawlessness, this no-man's-land [La Rinconada] now teems with dreamers and schemers anxious to strike it rich, even if it means destroying their environment—and themselves—in the process...For all of its allure, gold's human and environmental toll has never been so steep...In the Indonesian province of East Kalimantan, the military, along with security forces of an Anglo-Australian gold company [Kelian Equatorial Mining (KEM – part of Rio Tinto)], forcibly evicted small-scale miners and burned their villages to make way for a large-scale mine. Thousands of protestors against expansion of a mine in Cajamarca, Peru, faced tear gas and police violence. The deadly effects of mercury are equally hazardous to small-scale miners...Newmont has generated tens of thousands of jobs in poor regions. But it has also come under attack for everything from ecological destruction to the forced relocation of villagers. At Batu Hijau...the company has responded by ramping up community development and environmental programs—and dismissing its critics...