ENG
ESP
CHAPTERS
EXTRAS
02. GOLD
The arid landscapes of Mexico contain gold in very low concentrations and traditional mining techniques are not enough to extract it. Open pit mining is a high environmental impact technique –freshwater consumption, toxicity, landscape destruction– created to satisfy a 21st century gold fever, which in turn, is driven by the demand of gold for financial speculation. Would this industry be so profitable if the environmental impacts where taken into account?
SOUNDTRACK AND AUDIO
Ernesto Paredano
VOICE OVER
Exequiel Ezcurra
SOCIAL MEDIA AND COMMUNICATION
Ana Domínguez
WE WOULD LIKE TO THANK
Sandy Lanham, Environmental Flying Services
Pedro Ezcurra
Pedro Medellín
Dora Baltazar
ADDITIONAL PHOTOGRAPHY
Discovery FootageSource
Getty Images
FramePool
ShutterStock Footage
NASA’s Earth Observatory
Flickr Creative Commons
GO TO IMAGE GALLERY
WITH THE SUPPORT OF
International Community Foundation
Scripps Institution of Oceanography
UC Mexus – University of California, Riverside
International League of Conservation Photographers
DIRECTED BY
Jaime Rojo
Octavio Aburto
SCRIPT
Exequiel Ezcurra
Octavio Aburto
Jaime Rojo
SCIENCE ADVISOR
Exequiel Ezcurra
PHOTOGRAPHY & VIDEO
Octavio Aburto
Jaime Rojo
MOTION GRAPHICS
Anna Paretas
VIDEO EDITING
Tania Escobar
RETURN TO TOP
IMAGE GALLERY
The Sonoran Desert is considered a high biodiversity wilderness area
© Jaime Rojo
An intricate network of mineral deposits lies under these arid landscapes, and gold is the most valuable
© Jaime Rojo
Gold in nuggets is scarce now and its extraction requires destructive techniques, such as open pit mining
© Octavio Aburto
The extraction of one ounce of gold requires the removal of 130 tons of rocks with explosives and heavy machinery
© Jaime Rojo
The huge hole in the surface of the Earth can be visible from outer space
© Jaime Rojo
The impacts on the landscape and the ground aquifers are irreversible and often, not considered in the costs of operation
© Octavio Aburto
The scale of the pit is appreciated when compared with a dump truck, whose wheels can easily reach 2.5 meters in height
© Octavio Aburto
The ore is crushed in mills and stored in large deposits, called leach heaps, and then sprayed with a highly toxic solution of cyanide
© Octavio Aburto
80% of the rocks that are removed in a mine will end up in the waste dumps, where it will release arsenic and heavy metals into aquifers
© Octavio Aburto
Would open pit mining be profitable if it would take into account the social and environmental impacts?
© Jaime Rojo
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