Papua New Guinea: Gold's Costly Dividend

PORGERA, PAPUA NEW GUINEA HIGHLANDS - NOVEMBER 21: An impoverished Papuan family illegally prospects in a mine tailings river with heavy metal laden waters on the outskirts of the Porgera Joint Venture Mine, Papua New Guinea, Porgera, Papua New Guinea, 21 November 2010. These impoverished people engage in illegal mining on the dumps and tailings outflow areas of the mine in order to survive. They take their five year old daughter and their 7 year old son with them on their daily mining exercises, child workers are a common site on these dumps which are both toxic and a highly dangerous illegal environment. Many of these local people sold their land to the mine for a period of the operational life of the mine. They underestimated how long the mine would keep going and the expansion thereof. The Mine dumps now flow onto the last viable land of these local people and they illegally mine those dumps to eke out a living. (Photo by Brent Stirton/Getty Images Reportage)