gold mine news stories on Newser

Good News for Haiti: Gold!

Neal Colgrass — Sat, 12 May 2012 14:40:00 CDT

What news for a nation blighted by poverty , disease , and a devastating earthquake : Haiti is home to lucrative gold mines. And copper and silver ones too. Potentially worth $20 billion, the precious metal finds are already creating hundreds of jobs and new roads, the AP reports. What's more, mining by...

Californian Busted for Lucrative Illegal Gold Mine

Rob Quinn — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 02:21:00 CST

California authorities aren't buying landowner Joseph Hardesty's excuse that he is merely running a gravel business from a Gold Rush-era mine in a gold-rich part of the state. Authorities in El Dorado County say he is running one of the most blatantly illegal gold-mining operations ever seen in the state,...

Chile Starts Digging Miner Rescue Shaft

Jane Yager — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 06:00:30 CDT

Three months and 29 days to go: Engineers have begun drilling the shaft through which they hope to rescue the 33 miners trapped in a collapsed gold mine deep below Chile's Atacama Desert. The rescue shaft, begun late yesterday, must reach down 2,300 feet to the emergency shelter where...

Gold Mine Scamster Rips Off Couple for $5M

Rob Quinn — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 01:47:23 CST

A California man who claimed to have a new way of extracting gold from old mines has been busted for bilking a couple in their '80s out of nearly $5 million. John Arthur Walthall blew the couple's cash on cars, alimony, film school fees for his son, and a $60,...

Salmon Protections Strike Calif.'s New '49ers

Rob Quinn — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 06:44:28 CST

Prospectors seeking to join California's new gold rush are facing an upstream battle amid moves to protect the state's salmon stocks. Suction dredge mining, which uses gas-powered machines to scrape gold from river beds, has been banned while its environmental impact is reviewed, a process expected to take until 2011....

US-Owned Gold Mine Target of Deadly Papua Attacks

Rob Quinn — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 07:32:22 CDT

Two people were killed today in the latest attack near a US-owned gold mine in Indonesia's Papua province, the AP reports. At least 12 people have been killed or wounded in ambushes near the mine in recent weeks. Authorities blame separatist rebels, who have been waging an insurgency in the...

Gold's Price Is High, but Human Costs Are Steeper

Paul Stinson — Sat, 20 Dec 2008 19:30:01 CST

As the price of gold continues its steady climb—at $271 before 9/11, it's now above $835— National Geographic provides a sobering look at the human and environmental costs of finding it and digging it up. With the world's biggest deposits long gone and new discoveries rare, "it's an invitation...

Price of Gold: Alaska's Salmon

Peter Fearon — Tue, 25 Dec 2007 07:04:42 CST

The world's largest sockeye salmon fishery, located in the Bristol Bay area of Alaska, is threatened with destruction by a proposed gold mine, which could become the biggest in North America. The planned Pebble Mine has polarized the state; mining companies, on the one hand, and environmentalists and commercial fishing...