Gold

===

this is for the metal/ mining

see goldline for dealers/ scams

SEE GOLD STD WINGNUTERY

promoted 2nd 1119 on progo vlad in africa (trade for arms?!)

resource curse leads to centralization of power and corruption

nyt

...But for the hard right, even such preferred forms of government could never be trusted. Slobodian lays out how, for right-wingers fearful of a spendthrift government “debauching” the currency, gold became the objective standard of value. Some “goldbugs” actually welcomed the prospect of a currency collapse, anticipating the “twin pleasures” of vindication and financial enrichment. Before the internet, they stoked fear and excitement in what Slobodian calls the “profane space” of the newsletter and advice manual. The key was to portray a collapse as imminent and inevitable: “An essential part of the goldbug formula was instilling a basic mistrust in the utterances of public authorities.”

It’s a formula that has been turbocharged in the digital age. A similar mix of gullibility and paranoia fuels today’s rush for the “new gold” of cryptocurrency, in which suspicions of central banks meet credulous frenzies for memecoins. Slobodian’s book offers an illuminating history to our current bewildering moment, as right-wing populists join forces with billionaire oligarchs to take a chain saw to the foundations of public life, until there’s nothing left to stand on.

HAYEK’S BASTARDS: Race, Gold, IQ, and the Capitalism of the Far Right | By Quinn Slobodian | Zone Books | 279 pp. | $29.95

...

AN 10 24

'World on fire': Why this billionaire calls surge in gold 'really concerning' for US economy

WING NUTTERY:

https://davetroy.medium.com/

https://davetroy.medium.com/special-feature-paranoia-on-parade-45b624bce1fc

For the last several months, I’ve been working on a story for publication in the Washington Spectator about the history of the “goldbug” movement in the United States from the New Deal to today. That story, “Paranoia on Parade: How Goldbugs, Libertarians and Religious Extremists Brought America to the Brink” was published this week as a lead feature, along with a 3-part podcast series that features the story along with extra commentary.

In the words of Washington Spectator editor Hamilton Fish:

Dave Troy’s masterful essay Paranoia on Parade highlights our May-June issue. Against the backdrop of the January 6 Committee hearings, Troy traces the roots of the insurrection to the wealthy industrialists, oil barons and tech entrepreneurs and whose century-long crusade to dismantle the government and assert control over the currency wound up on the Capitol steps.

Opponents of the New Deal and leaders of the American business community looked to European fascism for models that would enable them to thwart social democracy and the democratization of America. They recruited aggrieved veterans, conservative Christians, anti-communists, anti-Semites and white nationalists to their cause, one that ultimately failed to excite a nation in thrall to Roosevelt’s program....

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Lance Wallnau Sees Gold in Fearmongering About ‘Confiscation’ of Retirement Funds | Right Wing Watch

commentary

Trump supporter and self-promoter Lance Wallnau, an ardent advocate for Seven Mountains Dominionism, is promoting shameful fearmongering that financial “elites” are preparing to “confiscate” Americans’ retirement accounts. Wallnau’s letter to Christian Post readers arrived in email inboxes this week with the subject line, “World-Renowned Preacher Warns Americas to ACT NOW Before Elites Confiscate Retirement Accounts.”

Wallnau’s email begins by highlighting his supposed prophetic gift for predicting the future, as evidenced by his proclamations that Donald Trump would be elected president—the email even includes a picture of the two of them together—and moves swiftly into a dire warning:

I’m Lance Wallnau, Christian author, educator and news analyst for thirty years. In 2016, I was one of the few evangelical leaders to accurately predict Donald Trump’s Presidency and historic impact.

Now, heading into 2024, I want to warn you about something which will almost certainly negatively affect your life.

Wallnau’s email explains that he is writing about “The Total Control of All Financial Accounts…Including ALL 401(k)s and IRAs,” adding, “This is a big prediction. But I am now very confident this is coming to pass.”

Wallnau’s supposed evidence for this claim? That at the most recent G20 meeting, “the most powerful people in the world could NOT stop talking about Central Bank Digital Currencies.” While CBDC’s are a complicated and controversial financial instrument being considered by many governments, and while there are ongoing debates about their potential dangers for privacy and economic stability, that’s a far cry from Wallnau’s claims that Americans’ retirement accounts are at risk of being confiscated by these global “elites.”

Hawking gold has been a financial mainstay of right-wing media outlets and online personalities for years. For religious-right pundits like Wallnau, promoting gold as a hedge against financial and societal collapse can dovetail with broader apocalyptic messaging.

A few months ago, The Washington Post wrote about the extensive marketing on right-wing media of gold coins as a retirement investment, often with outrageous markups. Reporter Hanna Kozlowska, one of the authors of the Post report, followed up with an August story for MSNBC, noting that their research found that older people who watch conservative media are “bombarded” with ads for gold:

We’ve spoken to customers who are disabled, homebound or living only on Social Security, their lives upended by losing their only nest eggs. And although complaints and allegations of fraud against these companies have been public for years, right-wing media outlets have continued to benefit by accepting their advertising.

The kind of fearmongering pitch Wallnau’s email included is a common sales tactic, according to Kozlowska. “To lure customers, the companies often use fear-based and politically tinged messaging in their advertising and on sales calls,” she wrote for MSNBC, citing an example of an ad sent to a Newsmax list claiming, “Nancy Pelosi has been on a secret mission to KILL the US Dollar.”

Wallnau’s recent email encourages readers to get a kit explaining “how to transfer your current retirement funds into a physical gold IRA without paying a dime in penalties or taxes.” Clicking on the link provided takes readers to a webpage that includes another message from Wallnau invoking God and the Bible to back his pitch:

I’m an author, public speaker, business consultant and man of God. We’re living in an age of economic and social crisis. Don’t be afraid, though. We can tap into our spiritual faith to endure adversity, and the Bible explains how we ready ourselves. God gave Noah a blueprint for the ark, and I believe God has empowered us to build our very own financial arks for the stormy seas ahead.

Birch Gold Group didn’t need the recent G20 conversations about CBDCs to sound the alarm about “confiscation.” It sent Daily Wire subscribers an email in April 2022 with the subject line, “Biden Lackeys Found Planning this ‘Confiscation’ of Savings.” It warned that deficit spending and inflation amounted to an unannounced confiscation of people’s retirement nest eggs, and offered a kit that would show them “how to LEGALLY convert your retirement savings into the rock-solid foundation of precious metals.” That echoed a similar email from two years earlier. And they’re not the only ones warning about “confiscation.”. Subscribers to The Blaze got a similar message from GSI Exchange. The Hartford Gold Group sent a similar email last year to readers of The Patriot Post

Despite the sales rhetoric about gold being a safe haven, investing in gold is not a sure thing. Between 1990 and the beginning of 2023, stocks provided a better return than gold; gold has done better since 2000, but dropped between 2020 and 2022 and has been relatively flat in 2023. And that’s not taking into effect huge fees and markups that can face unwary buyers of gold and gold coins.

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mma11 23

Newsmax is not known for shying away from support of “one of the greatest presidents this country has ever had,” as one host described alleged felon Donald J. Trump. That support includes the network’s coverage of Trump’s civil trial for fraud in New York, which has featured compliments for a Trump son's hair, a semi-regular soapbox for a Trump family member, and vicious attacks against Judge Arthur Engoron and his family over unverified photos and memes.

Like much of its pro-Trump coverage, Newsmax’s increasingly scummy, personal lines of attack seem geared to turn yet another thing that in theory should be a negative for Trump in the primary — this time, decades of alleged fraud — into a positive. To that end, the network has employed a familiar and false refrain, asserting that investors were not just paid but “overpaid, since the assets were inflated,” so “there were no victims,” just the perennial “witch hunt.” But, Newsmax warns, hinting at revenge, “the last laugh will be on all of them” once Trump returns to office.

On November 9, guest host Lidia Curanaj began The Chris Salcedo Show by celebrating that Trump “has truly damaged people on the left by proving all of his critics wrong, by being one of the greatest presidents this country has ever had.”

Citing a social media post featuring anti-Trump memes as an example of these “damaged” people, Curanaj scandalously reported that “the author of this tweet [is] reportedly the wife of Judge Engoron. Yes! The same Democrat activist judge that is now trying to dismantle President Trump’s substantial financial empire,” before going on to note that she has “refuted that it’s her X account.”

Video

CitationFrom the November 9, 2023, edition of Newsmax's The Chris Salcedo Show

She also attacked Engoron himself, calling him, “someone whose discernment is questionable, to say the least.”

“This guy is just so smug,” Curanaj complained, referencing a video of Engoron, “the way he smiles there, mugging for the cameras as if he’s the star of some kind of 90s sitcom.”

Then, after apologizing “if you just had some lunch or dinner,” Curanaj brought up the rumor that Judge Engoron “posted two nude torso photos of himself” online, commenting “thank god that camera was blocking the lower area.”

The unsubstantiated claim comes from a Gateway Pundit post that was soon shared by Trump on Truth Social; the photos are purportedly workout progress photos someone posted to Engoron’s high school alumni newsletter online, but it has not been confirmed that it’s him in the pictures.

With a “censored” bar covering the male figure’s nipples, Curanaj attempted to shame Engoron: “If there was a shirtless photo of me I would lose my job, right? Because Newsmax would say, ‘What kind of judgment does Lidia have to do something like that?’ And he just recently did it. This is not something he did many years ago.”

After also ripping into New York Attorney General Letitia James, Curanaj groused that “the last laugh will be on all of them when President Trump becomes the president of the United States again.”

Video

CitationFrom the November 9, 2023, edition of Newsmax's The Chris Salcedo Show

The network's over-the-top coverage of the civil fraud trial has been on display for weeks. On November 1, prime-time host Rob Schmitt read a brief report about Donald Trump Jr’s testimony, pausing to note that his “hair looks good” in the low-angle shot Newsmax used. When the picture changed to Judge Engoron, he quipped “that one, not so much,” before denouncing “one of the stupidest cases New York has ever brought, and believe me this state has brought some stupid cases,” noting that other New York real estate developers called it “outrageous.”

The entire time, the report shared half a screen with an advertisement for gold-backed IRA retirement accounts, telling viewers to text the promotional code “NEWSMAX” to a six-digit phone number.

“So that tells you a lot,” Schmitt said of the developers’ criticism.

Video

CitationFrom the November 1, 2023, edition of Newsmax's Rob Schmitt Tonight

Newsmax has also continued to platform Trump’s daughter-in-law, and co-defendant Eric Trump’s wife, Lara Trump. Though Trump’s appearances and guest hosting spots are often dedicated to attacking President Joe Biden and pushing corruption allegations against his family, she also occasionally discusses her own family’s fraud trial.

“My husband and my brother-in-law were both in a New York courtroom today,” Trump complained while guest hosting Rob Schmitt Tonight on November 2. Parroting a real estate lawyer quoted by the New York Post, Trump insisted: “There were no victims. No one lost money. No one got hurt. Everyone got paid in full — even overpaid since the assets were inflated.”

“For this detestable woman,” Trump said of James, “it’s not about the law. It’s all about getting Trump.”

Video

CitationFrom the November 2, 2023, edition of Newsmax's Rob Schmitt Tonight

“This witch hunt isn’t just unethical,” Trump warned, “this honestly could have ripple effects across other multi-billion dollar industries.” Her guest, right-wing attorney Jordan Sekulow, agreed, suggesting there was a deeper level of betrayal in the fact that the lawsuit came in New York, “after everything the Trump family has done for the city of New York.”

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no ln 7 23

How 'gold IRA' industry ads became a 'mainstay of right-wing media': report

Fox News' Laura Ingraham In July 2022 (Gage Skidmore).

Alex Henderson July 25, 2023

For many years, right-wing media outlets have been aggressively promoting gold as a safe haven for retirees. Anyone who has spent a lot of time consuming right-wing media, be it Fox News, Fox Business and Newsmax TV or AM talk radio, has likely come across gold commercials.

In a report published by the Washington Post on July 25, journalists Jeremy B. Merrill and Hanna Kozlowska stress that the "gold retirement investment industry" has "become a mainstay of right-wing media."

"An analysis by The Post of political newsletters, social media, podcasts and a national database of television ads collected by the company AdImpact found that pitches to invest in gold coins are a daily presence in media that caters to a right-wing audience and often echo conservative talking points about looming economic and societal collapse," Merrill and Kozlowska explain. "The Post found no similar ads for gold retirement investments in mainstream or left-wing media sources in the databases."

READ MORE: Fox News' relationship with Turning Point USA is 'basically over': report

Lawsuits against "gold IRA" companies, according to Merrill and Kozlowska, are not uncommon. One of the companies that has been sued is Lear Capital, a Fox News advertiser that sells gold and silver coins.

The Washington Post reporters note that "over the past decade, more than 30 customers in 20 states have sued a dozen gold IRA companies."

Terry White, a disabled retiree, told the Post he invested $174,000 in gold coins with Lear and found out the company charges a 33 percent commission. White said he lost almost $80,000.

"For years," Merrill and Kozlowska report, "gold IRA industry advertising has echoed accusations against Democratic politicians commonly found in news segments on conservative outlets. The ads tout the coins as a safe haven from economic uncertainty and social upheaval. Most of the coins are manufactured by the Royal Canadian Mint, which says they're bullion — a kind of coin whose value is determined by the underlying metal. As such, they meet IRS rules for retirement investments."

READ MORE: 'They must comply': Newsmax employees subpoenaed in Smartmatic defamation lawsuit

According to Merrill and Kozlowska, an "analysis of ad data and financial records" shows that the"gold IRA" industry "spends millions of dollars a year to reach viewers of Fox, Newsmax and other conservative outlets."

"Former Fox News host Bill O'Reilly and former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani have promoted the coins," the Post reporters observe, "while ads for Lear's competitors have appeared on a podcast hosted by Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) and Newsmax broadcasts of former President Donald Trump's political rallies."

READ MORE: Tucker Carlson's Twitter viewership falling as battle with Fox News stalls: report

Find the Washington Post's full report at this link (subscription required).

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'Full-scale gold rush'

About 13% of Brazil's territory is classified as indigenous land, spread across more than 400 reserves. But according to the Amazon Geo-Referenced Socio-Environmental Information Network, there are more than 450 illegal mining sites in the Brazilian Amazon, where most of those reserves are located.

The proposed law would likely lead to a dramatic rise in the level of mining activity.

"Once you open the door, it will become a flood," Glenn Shepard, an American anthropologist who works with indigenous populations affected by illegal mining, told DW. "The law will create a precedent for miners to go in. It's already a full-scale gold rush going on, and these indigenous groups are losing control."

Greenpeace's journalism team, Unearthed, has reported that gold miners planned to continue working through the coronavirus pandemic, increasing fears of spreading the disease to indigenous groups.

In advance of the vote on the bill, the Ministry of Mines and Energy told DW it had received more than 4,000 applications for mining-related activities on indigenous land.

Tensions between miners and local communities are already high. In June last year, Brazil's indigenous rights agency, Funai, reported dozens of miners dressed in military uniform invading the Wajapi community, in the Brazilian Amazon, stabbing and killing one of its leaders.

According to research by international NGO, Global Witness, 20 land and environmental defenders were killed in Brazil in 2018 alone. Globally, the nonprofit cited mining as the deadliest sector, with 46 reported murders in the same year.

The deforestation issue

Environmentally, one of the biggest impacts of mining is logging. A 2017 report published in the journal Nature Communications found that mining accounted for 9% of all forest loss in the Amazon between 2005 and 2015.

Satellite analysispublished by the Monitoring of the Andean Amazon Project revealed that 2,000 hectares of gold mining-related deforestation occurred in 2019 across the Munduruku indigenous reserve, more than double the amount recorded the year before.

Last November dozens of tribal leaders from the Amazon met with officials in Brasilia to file claims and report serious threats to their territories.

Alessandra Korap Munduruku, a leader from Para state who attended the meeting, says the legalization of mining would "be the death of our people."

Besides bringing "disease and prostitution to our people, drug addiction to our children, and violent conflict to the Munduruku men," she said gold mining activity is also killing fish through mercury poisoning.

Released across the region's major Tapajos River during the mining process, mercury is seeping into the tributaries like those that snake past the mining town of Creporizao. Local communities rely on these rivers for many of their water needs.

Late last year, in the first study of its kind, Erik Jennings, a neurologist based in the city of Santarem, took blood and hair samples from 112 tribespeople to assess mercury levels.

"It's a slow genocide," Jennings told DW. "The mercury can cause serious cognitive and visual impairment, and deform fetuses."

Problematic legal trade

Even the legal gold trade in Brazil is largely unregulated, which facilitates illegal business and plays a significant role in the destruction of the Amazon. Prosecutors in Para state say the lack of regulation in the legal trade and the fact that receipts are paper-based carbon copies make it easy for criminals to thrive and illegal gold to enter the legal system.

"The practice of fraud in the sector is quite easy, and the investigation of illegalities becomes an almost insurmountable obstacle," Luis de Camoes Lima Boaventura, public prosecutor in the Amazonian city of Santarem said.

"Until a computerized system is installed, the authorities cannot check, in real time, the legality of the transactions. To make a transaction of illegal gold, all you currently need is a pen and paper."

According to National Mining Agency estimates, around 30 tons of gold worth some 4.5 billion reals ($1.1 billion, €900 million) are illegally traded in the state of Para annually. That is around six times more than the amount legally declared.

When miners like Jose Maria return to Creporizao at the end of what can be days away, they come to one of a dozen gold shops that line the main drag to melt what they have mined into standardized bars. Once that is done, illegally-mined gold, which is responsible for widespread deforestation, pollution and violence in the Amazon, has entered the system and can no longer be traced.

Reposted with permission from Deutsche Welle.

mining deforestation environment indigenous rights pollution brazil amazon rainforest rainforests

mma 3/22/20

Grift watch: How right-wing media are trying to profit off a pandemic

We've talked about how right-wing media are trying to downplay the pandemic. Even worse are those that are trying to profit off of it.

Trump ally, Newsmax TV host, and Las Vegas Review-Journal columnist Wayne Allyn Root has been dangerously suggesting that if people contract the novel coronavirus, they should take doses of an “alkaline structured silver” product he endorses because it supposedly “kills [the] virus” and can “save your life.”
After he said that, the Las Vegas Review-Journal told Media Matters that they were parting ways with Root, and that this was a factor.
The New York State Office of the Attorney General has told Root “to immediately cease and desist from making misleading claims,” in reference to his comments on silver. Newsmax airs in 70 million homes, and currently airs a show featuring disgraced former White House spokesperson Sean Spicer. Newsmax is also owned by a close Trump ally.
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) has also called on Newsmax to stop pushing a false advertisement from Monetary Gold which claims that banks can seize people's accounts. Townhall has run the same ad.
National Enquirer pushed a dangerous lie that “coronavirus cures” have been “found” and are “at your fingertips!" We spoke with a doctor who was cited in the piece: It turns out that he never spoke with the publication and demanded a retraction. A spokesperson for the National Enquirer told us that “a correction clarifying that there was an error in what was attributed to the doctor will appear in a future issue in the next couple of weeks.”

tom dispatch 3/20

...

Before zeroing in on Ukraine, however, let’s consider just a few of Giuliani’s other foreign ventures. Since leaving office as New York’s mayor, through Giuliani Partners, the Bracewell & Giuliani law partnership, and (after 2016) the giant law firm of Greenberg Traurig, along with Giuliani Security & Safety and Giuliani Capital Advisers, the former mayor has pulled in millions of dollars working on behalf of foreign clients, including highly controversial ones. Among those deals, contracts, and maneuvers, before and after Trump became president and hired his old friend Rudy to serve as his personal attorney in 2018, Giuliani has been involved in a far-flung series of deals: he’s been a paid lobbyist in Romania; had a cybersecurity contract inQatar; had deals in Colombia, Argentina, and El Salvador; worked shadow diplomacy (with a business angle) with Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro; operated in Japan, Serbia, and Guatemala; and that only begins to tell the story.

Consider Turkey, starting in 2017. Back then, when Lieutenant General Michael Flynn was forced to resign after just a few weeks as national security advisor, it turned out that he had quietly (and without reporting it) been working on behalf of Turkey’s autocratic government, led by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, during the 2016 election campaign. Erdogan was disturbed by the presence of a dissident, Fethullah Gulen, in the United States. As an unregistered advocate for Turkey, Flynn lobbied in 2016 to have the United States expel Gulen and send him back to Turkey. Early the next year, Flynn was gone, but no fear, Rudy Giuliani promptly took up the same cause. He began urging President Trump to extradite Gulen to Turkey, where Erdogan was accusing him of having plotted an attempted coup d’état. (In the end, Gulen wasn’t expelled.)

Given Giuliani’s ability to mix policy with business, you won’t be surprised to learn that he was also enmeshed in more lucrative efforts in Turkey. At around the same time, he was lobbying Trump to endorse a prisoner swap involving one of his clients, an Iranian-born Turkish gold trader named Reza Zarrab whom the FBI had arrested in 2016 on charges of money laundering and trying to do an end run around economic sanctions on Iran. According to the New York Times,Zarrab had been working with Halkbank, a major Turkish bank with close ties to Turkish Finance Minister Berat Albayrak who is also President Erdogan’s son-in-law, to “funnel more than $10 billion in gold and cash to Iran.”

At first blush, it might seem odd for Giuliani to offer his services on behalf of an Iranian expat accused of trying to break U.S. sanctions whose family, it turned out, had close ties to former Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Curious, yes, but for Giuliani, business is business and there were bucks to be made. That he would use his connections to the Oval Office in an ultimately unsuccessful appeal for his client is even odder, given that Giuliani is otherwise a militant hardliner when it comes to demanding the overthrow of the Iranian government....

Court Blocks Gold Mining in Yellowstone National Park

Canadian company cannot carry out exploratory drilling for gold mining on land just north of Yellowstone National Park, a Montana district court ruled Monday.

Protecting the public lands around Yellowstone has been a bipartisan effort, as Earthjustice, which argued the case against the Canadian company, pointed out in a press release. Former Interior Sec. Ryan Zinke banned mining on public lands near Yellowstone for 20 years in October 2018, and this was made permanent in March when President Donald Trump signed a massive, bi-partisan public lands bill. But Lucky Minerals Inc. had sought permission to mine on private land in Emigrant Gulch.

"The court's ruling is a critical piece in protecting Yellowstone's Gateway from the menace of gold mining," Greater Yellowstone Coalition (GYC) Executive Director Caroline Byrd said in the press release. "The Trump administration, the Obama administration, Congress, the Forest Service, the Park County Commission, thousands of citizens and more than 420 Montana businesses all agree, Yellowstone is more valuable than gold."

The Greater Yellowstone Coalition joined with the Park County Environmental Council to challenge Lucky Minerals. Park County District Judge Brenda Gilbert ruled in their favor, invalidating the Montana Department of Environmental Quality's (DEQ) permit for the project,The Associated Press reported.

Gilbert had already ruled in May 2018 that the DEQ permit did not consider the drilling's impact on water quality and wildlife, according to GYC and Earthjustice. However, a provision of the Montana Environmental Policy Act prohibits judges from blocking projects because of inadequate environmental analyses, The Associated Press reported.

Because of that provision, Lucky Minerals would have been allowed to begin exploratory drilling in July, before the new DEQ analysis was completed, Earthjustice explained. So the groups challenged the loophole, saying it violated the state's constitution. On Monday, the court agreed, arguing it gave the public "no meaningful chance to participate in the agency decision," Earthjustice reported.

"This ruling ensures that Lucky Minerals can't harm clean water and native wildlife at the gateway into Yellowstone National Park under cover of a license that was never legally issued in the first place," Earthjustice attorney Jenny Harbine said. "Lucky Minerals should have read the writing on the wall a long time ago."

Lucky Minerals CEO John Mears told The Associated Press that the company would likely appeal. However, GYC noted that in the meantime the company no longer has a permit to drill.

"Lucky Minerals should have learned by now that our community will not rest until our irreplaceable wild places are safe from industrial gold mining," Park County Environmental Council Executive Director Michelle Uberuaga said in a press release. "We will win because local residents, businesses, and elected officials are united to protect our natural resources and local economy against this threat."

GYC is also fighting the Crevice Mining Group, which has been granted permission by DEQ to mine up to 5 acres at a time on private land on Yellowstone's border without having to submit to an environmental analysis.

families could be displaced from their homes and have their livelihoods destroyed -- if mining giant Condor Gold gets its way in Mina la India, Nicaragua.

The British mining corporation wants to go through with a destructive gold mine -- despite fierce opposition from the local community.

The people of Mina la India have seen their ground water supply damaged and neighbours harassed. They know what they’re up against. And they’ve said they need the support of people around the world to win this fight.

Here’s how we can help stop this.

The International Finance Corporation (IFC, aka the private sector arm of the World Bank Group) is the second biggest investor in Condor Gold’s schemes and prides itself with investing responsibly.

So what’s it doing investing in a gold mine that could destroy an entire community?

If we convince the IFC to divest, we can help stop this destructive project from going ahead.

Tell the IFC to divest from Condor Gold’s destructive mining project in Mina la India.

Condor Gold is a bully: it went as far as suing protesters in Mina la India.

But the community fought back -- and Condor Gold finally dropped its charges.

They won a battle. But the intimidation continues.

http://www.ecowatch.com/golds-hidden-carbon-footprint-climate-change-1917343690.html

http://www.alternet.org/environment/global-gold-rush-decimating-south-americas-tropical-forests

A global “gold rush” has led to a significant increase of deforestation in the tropical forests of South America.

This is according to a study [2] published in IOP Publishing’s journal Environmental Research Letters, which has highlighted the growing environmental impact of gold mining in some of the most biologically diverse regions in the tropics.

Researchers from the University of Puerto Rico have shown that between 2001 and 2013, around 1680 km2 of tropical forest was lost in South America as a result of gold mining, which increased from around 377 km2 to 1303km2 since the global economic crisis in 2007.

Furthermore, around 90 percent of this forest loss occurred in just four areas and a large proportion occurred within the vicinity of conservation areas.

Lead author of the research Nora L. Álvarez-Berríos said: “Although the loss of forest due to mining is smaller in extent compared to deforestation caused by other land uses, such as agriculture or grazing areas, deforestation due to mining is occurring in some of the most biologically diverse regions in the tropics. For example, in the Madre de Dios Region in Perú, one hectare of forest can hold up to 300 species of trees.”

Driven by personal consumption and uncertainty in global financial markets, global gold production has increased to meet rising demand, increasing from around 2445 metric tons in 2000 to around 2770 metric tons in 2013.

Increased demand for gold has been paralleled by a dramatic increase in price — the price of gold increased from $250/ounce in 2000 to $1300/ounce in 2013.

This has stimulated new gold mining activities around the world and made it feasible to mine for gold in areas that were not previously profitable for mining, such as deposits underneath tropical forests.

This can lead to extensive forest loss and result in serious environmental and ecological impacts, caused by the removal of vegetation, the set-up of roads and railways for access and the creation of unorganised settlements.

Some of the long-term impacts include the failure of vegetation to regrow, changing of rainfall patterns, the permanent loss of biodiversity, and a release of CO2 into the atmosphere.

In their study, the researchers sought to quantify the impacts of gold mines in tropical forests by creating a geographical database that highlighted the location of newly developed mines between 2000 and 2013.

The database was then cross-referenced with annual land cover maps showing the change of forest cover over the same period.

The study encompassed the tropical and subtropical forest biome in South America below 1000m, covering Colombia, Venezuela, Guyana, Suriname, French Guiana, Brazil, Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia.

Results showed that over the 13-year period, 89 percent of forest loss occurred in just four regions: the Guianan moist forest ecoregion; the Southwest Amazon moist forest ecoregion; the Tapajós-Xingú moist forest ecoregion; and the Magdalena Valley-Urabá region.

Although there was little deforestation inside strict protection areas, around a third of the total deforestation occurred within a 10-km buffer zone around these areas and thus made the areas susceptible to harmful impacts from chemical pollutants that are dispersed from a mining area.

“To decrease the amount of deforestation that is occurring as a result of gold mining in the tropical forests, it is important that awareness is raised among gold consumers to understand the environmental and social impacts of buying gold jewellery or investing in gold.

“It is important to also encourage more responsible ways of extracting gold by helping miners to extract in a more efficient way to reduce deeper encroachment into the forests,” continued Álvarez-Berríos.

RELATED: [3]

[vid]

"In Peru, up to 50,000 children work as gold miners in small-scale mines, braving dangerous conditions and constantly at risk from accidents," according to [3]. "In Santa Filomena, the International Labour Organization is working together with a local group to put an end to child labour."

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how magna carta became minor:

HE CHARTER OF THE FOREST IMPOSED LIMITS TO PRIVATIZATION. THE ROBIN HOOD MYTHS CAPTURE THE ESSENCE OF ITS CONCERNS (AND IT IS NOT TOO SURPRISING THAT THE POPULAR TV SERIES OF THE 1950S, “THE ADVENTURES OF ROBIN HOOD,” WAS WRITTEN ANONYMOUSLY BY HOLLYWOOD SCREENWRITERS BLACKLISTED FOR LEFTIST CONVICTIONS). BY THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY, HOWEVER, THIS CHARTER HAD FALLEN VICTIM TO THE RISE OF THE COMMODITY ECONOMY AND CAPITALIST PRACTICE AND MORALITY.

WITH THE COMMONS NO LONGER PROTECTED FOR COOPERATIVE NURTURING AND USE, THE RIGHTS OF THE COMMON PEOPLE WERE RESTRICTED TO WHAT COULD NOT BE PRIVATIZED, A CATEGORY THAT CONTINUES TO SHRINK TO VIRTUAL INVISIBILITY. IN BOLIVIA, THE ATTEMPT TO PRIVATIZE WATER WAS, IN THE END, BEATEN BACK BY AN UPRISING THAT BROUGHT THE INDIGENOUS MAJORITY TO POWER FOR THE FIRST TIME IN HISTORY. THE WORLD BANK HAS JUST RULED THAT THE MINING MULTINATIONAL PACIFIC RIM CAN PROCEED WITH A CASE AGAINST EL SALVADOR FOR TRYING TO PRESERVE LANDS AND COMMUNITIES FROM HIGHLY DESTRUCTIVE GOLD MINING. ENVIRONMENTAL CONSTRAINTS THREATEN TO DEPRIVE THE COMPANY OF FUTURE PROFITS, A CRIME THAT CAN BE PUNISHED UNDER THE RULES OF THE INVESTOR-RIGHTS REGIME MISLABELED AS “FREE TRADE.” AND THIS IS ONLY A TINY SAMPLE OF STRUGGLES UNDERWAY OVER MUCH OF THE WORLD, SOME INVOLVING EXTREME VIOLENCE, AS IN THE EASTERN CONGO, WHERE MILLIONS HAVE BEEN KILLED IN RECENT YEARS TO ENSURE AN AMPLE SUPPLY OF MINERALS FOR CELL PHONES AND OTHER USES, AND OF COURSE AMPLE PROFITS

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MODERN GOLD RUSH?: An ounce of gold is now worth $1,675; gold mines long abandoned in the U.S. have creaked back to life. And on Capitol Hill, the nation's mining companies have been parting with some of their riches as they navigate around environmental, trade and other issues that affect their profitability.

Freeport-McMoRan is a strong Republican supporter, contributing more than $500,000 to federal candidates in the last election. Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) saw the best of the spoils, with $61,000 in contributions from Phoenix-based Freeport employees and its PAC. Texas Republican David Dewhurst, who lost in the primary to freshman Sen. Ted Cruz, got $45,000, and Sen. Dean Heller(R-Nev.) and House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) each received $20,000. Freeport gave GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney $14,100.

Heller was also one of Newmont Mining's favorite candidates, receiving $20,250 from Newmont employees and its PAC, of a total $337,354 in combined contributions to candidates in the last election. Rep. Mark Amodei (R-Nev.) followed closely behind with $19,000, then Sen. Denny Rehberg (R-Mont.) with $15,500, and Nevada Reps. Joe Heck (R) with $16,000 and Dina Titus(D) with $15,000.

According to Newmont's website, Nevada presents a huge opportunity for growth for the company.The company already owns 2 million acres of land in the state and operates 11 mines and nine process facilities there. In 2010, Newmont produced 1.7 million ounces of gold from Nevada mines, which accounted for almost a third of its annual gold production. At today's prices, that would be worth $2.85 trillion.

Nevada-based Barrick Gold and its PAC favored the same Nevada lawmakers last year as Freeport and Newmont did, contributing $279,700 to federal campaigns -- including $20,000 each to Heller, Titus, and Sen. Shelley Berkley (D-Nev.), as well as $25,500 to Amodei and $20,250 to Heller.

But the Nevada lawmakers themselves aren't invested in gold. The direct dividends of a potential gold rush would go to a bipartisan group of lawmakers from around the country, according to disclosure statements covering the year 2011: Rep. Kurt Schrader (D-Ore.) and Sen. Kay Hagan (D-N.C.) own shares worth between $1,000 and $15,000 in both Freeport-McMoRan and Newmont Mining. Boehner and Sen. John Hoeven (R-N.D.) own shares in Freeport-McMoRan valued at between $15,000 to $50,000. Sen. Jack Reed (D-R.I.) and Reps. John Campbell (R-Calif.) and Fred Upton (R-Mich.) own shares worth between $1,000 and $15,000. Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.) owns up to $2,000 in Freeport stock.

Others own shares in Newmont Mining. Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) and Reps. Eric Cantor (R-Va.) and Nita Lowey (D-N.Y.) own shares valued at between $15,000 and $50,000. Rep. Mick Mulvaney (R-S.C.) has stock worth between $16,000 and $65,000, and Rep. Ed Whitfield (R-Ky.) owns shares that are worth $1,000 to $15,000.

Of America's top mining companies, only Freeport-McMoRan increased its lobbying budget last year -- to $360,000 from $190,000 in 2011. That's still nothing compared to its $1.5 million lobbying spending in 2008, but these days Freeport is worried about tax reform, water settlement legislation related to Native American affairs, and trade tariffs. Last year it lobbied on Brazilian import tariffs on molybdenum and Russian export tariffs.

Newmont Mining spent $920,000 lobbying on hard rock mining, the Mercury Export Ban Act and the taxation of mercury storage in 2012. Barrick Gold spent $275,000 to lobby mining issues and reimbursement for reclaiming uranium mills.

Gold

'Full-scale gold rush'

The deforestation issue

​Problematic legal trade

Problematic legal trade