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Amid global crackdowns on cocaine trafficking, Colombia’s cartels and criminal groups have shifted to a new top moneymaker: gold. But as the government tackles illegal mining, artisanal workers whose families have relied on the gold for generations are caught in the crossfire.
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00:01These men in Colombia descend into mines that could collapse with one wrong move.
00:10About 70% of the country's gold is still dug out in informal mines like these.
00:22But the danger isn't just underground.
00:25The precious metal ends up funding armed groups.
00:30In fact, gold is now their biggest source of income.
00:33To stop this trade, authorities are blowing up illegal mines one by one.
00:40Yet demand for gold is soaring, especially in the United States.
00:45As the number one destination for Colombian gold, the U.S. is involved.
00:50We're talking billions and billions of dollars a year in dirty money.
00:55So how did gold become more lucrative than cocaine for Colombia's most dangerous criminals?
01:02And if it's so tainted, why are countries still buying it?
01:10Marmato Village in the Colombian Andes clings to what's known as the Mountain of Gold.
01:16Here, 4,300 feet above sea level, families have mined the precious metal for over 500 years.
01:2837-year-old James Rotavista grew up on this mountain.
01:46Sanctuaries of digging have left many tunnels mostly empty.
01:50So miners grow deeper than their forefathers, down 2,000 feet.
01:57Where groundwater weakens support beams fast.
02:06The men follow what they call veins that snake through the rocks.
02:12They change color depending on the minerals mixed in.
02:16The walls that shimmer hide the gold.
02:19So when you find a beta with gold, you always try to take advantage of that money
02:26to implement the study of your children.
02:30Today, the men are betting on this fame.
02:33We also have caliche, which we know as.
02:36Caliche.
02:37Caliche.
02:38It's this black belt.
02:39We already know that it has a very big expressor.
02:42And it's more useful because we start with more load, with less load or a detonation.
02:50They start by drilling holes to place explosives.
02:54But Marmato's tunnels are full of old ones that never went off.
02:59And have killed some of his colleagues, years later.
03:03Personas que, en algún momento hemos estado dialogando como lo estamos haciendo tú y yo en este momento.
03:09Y al cabo de 15, 20 minutos, la persona ya no estar.
03:19Once they light the fuse, they have just a few minutes to get as far as they can from the
03:24blast.
03:25Which emits poisonous carbon monoxide.
03:45When the dust settles, the men go back in.
03:48We're going to go up here with a lot of attention.
03:51Here we have the mineral.
03:58Look.
03:59It's wrapped with a pira, and it's wrapped with a quark and other minerals.
04:03So, what we're going to do is we're going to classify the mineral in the best way.
04:09He fills his sack with about 55 pounds of ore, the rocks that contain the gold.
04:32This mine and all the underground minerals in it are owned by the Colombian government, which issues permits.
04:39But to qualify, workers need to meet some standards.
04:44Including using safer machinery for extraction.
04:48James' team can't afford that.
04:51So, authorities can stop them from mining at any time.
05:03James' team of 60 men work together to load up the carts.
05:14James' team of 60 men work together to load up the carts.
05:22He has been able to heal immediately.
05:26But here we have learned to be a family.
05:30To protect, help us.
05:32Because we as miners remember something very important.
05:35Life can go anywhere else.
05:39The state requires every operation to have its own rescue team, but artisanal mines here
05:45rarely do.
05:5255-year-old Jose Gallego worked in a mine for 22 years, but a close call with death
06:00motivated him to join a volunteer rescue team.
06:12Jose says they're the only first responders in Marmato.
06:19They all share a single rescue truck.
06:30There's just one road through town, and every minute counts.
06:49It takes them almost half an hour to get to the highest point the car can reach.
06:54They need to hike the rest of the way.
07:01Today, they reached the mine in near record time.
07:05Only to find out, a young miner had dropped 420 feet.
07:10That's about the height of a 40-story building.
07:14Blanca Rodas joined the team 11 years ago.
07:17But even she's not trained for this kind of mission.
07:25Both the miners and the rescuers are on edge, as time ticks by.
07:44Today, all she and the team can do is wait for other miners to retrieve the man from the
07:48shaft.
08:07After two hours, the miners finally carried the man out.
08:13But it was too late to save him.
08:27The team drives the miner to the nearest hospital, where his family is waiting.
08:32Gallego has repeatedly asked the government for funding.
08:35But he says he's barely received enough to pay the team a modest wage.
09:03For Blanca, the emotional toll of a failed mission never goes away.
09:33But even outside these mines, the risks young men in the state face, are the risks that
09:38are growing.
09:41Colombia's gold-rich regions have become hot spots for the country's most powerful cartels
09:46and rebel groups.
09:49Historically, they relied mainly on cocaine to finance their operations.
09:54But recent crackdowns on drug trafficking pushed them to explore other revenue sources.
10:00Julia Yansura tracks how dirty money enters the global financial system.
10:06The drug trafficking and criminal organizations we're seeing in Colombia today are sophisticated
10:11organizations that are relying on different income streams.
10:14So gold has become one of those income streams.
10:18In 2013, gold officially surpassed cocaine as their biggest source of revenue.
10:24And over the past decade, inflation and trade wars have continued to push prices to record highs.
10:32The price of cocaine has sort of stalled out.
10:35That's due to an overproduction of cocaine.
10:38Compare that to the price of gold, which is just incredible astronomical growth.
10:45Now, hundreds of mines operate under criminal networks, which experts estimate rake in billions of dollars annually.
10:52The Colombian government has formed a special task force to wipe out criminal operations.
10:59But policy analysts say that's also an outdated approach.
11:03I think it's the myth that we can solve this problem by sending out police and military.
11:10They will blow up just heavy machinery used in illegal mining.
11:14And within one hour of the yellow machinery being blown up,
11:18they're already seeing new yellow machinery being transported to the zone.
11:22There's got to be a better way to do this.
11:26In this fight between the government and criminal groups,
11:30local miners like Diego Jaramillo often get caught in the crossfire.
11:35We all have a fear.
11:38So we want to show you that we are a proud worker,
11:43with many ways to continue mining.
11:45Diego has been mining for decades here in Segovia,
11:49the country's main gold mining hub.
11:52But these days, cartels often coerce miners like him into selling their ore,
11:58or joining their ranks.
12:07Diego began mining here at just 14, along with his friends.
12:18Indigenous tribes started digging for gold here at least a thousand years ago,
12:23to use it in cultural and spiritual rituals.
12:27But in the 1500s, Spanish colonists seized mines across the country,
12:32and brought in foreign enslaved people to work in them.
12:36nearly 300 years later, Colombia gained independence from the Spanish,
12:42with help from the British, who also claimed some of the mines.
12:46Still, artisanal workers kept chipping away,
12:50in areas where no one controlled mining rights.
12:53Then, in the 1990s, Colombia made a push to attract foreign companies,
12:58by giving them exclusive licenses for huge swaths of land.
13:05This area, where Diego's been digging for 30 years,
13:08is now on the turf of a company called Quintana.
13:13But he mines here anyway.
13:16Here we work, because the loan of this title is far too far.
13:18Here it doesn't come.
13:19If we take advantage of it, we work on these two.
13:21Most of the gold in this mine is long gone.
13:25But he still looks for scraps.
13:28Because they're especially valuable today.
13:31Gold prices reached an all-time record of nearly $5,600 in early 2026,
13:38even though most small-scale miners end up selling their gold for 70% of the full market value.
13:44They still make about 10 times the $22 daily minimum wage in Colombia.
13:52Diego, for example, often collects enough ore over two days to earn $500.
14:02Once he's gathered as much as he can carry,
14:05Diego brings it to a processor a few miles away.
14:09This one is independent, but many others are operated by armed groups.
14:15Diego dumps his ore into this barrel and adds water to it.
14:21He also adds mercury, which sticks to the gold, making it easier to isolate.
14:27But it's extremely toxic over time.
14:30Still, miners continue using it without any precautions.
14:35Sin mercurio, no hacemos nada.
14:38Entonces, ese es el miedo.
14:39Pero así que tenga secuelas del mercurio, no las tengo.
14:46Men hit the barrels to help break up the ore.
14:50And inside, these steel balls grind it, making it easier to free the gold.
14:58Water carries lighter minerals away, while gold is heavy.
15:02So it settles at the bottom.
15:05At this point, the mercury is still stuck to the gold.
15:09So the nuggets are heated to burn that off.
15:13This also melts away any natural clues, indicating where the gold came from.
15:19And experts say that's a major draw for armed groups.
15:24Because that makes it easier to launder the gold before it leaves the country.
15:29You might be thinking, you know, illicit gold is going to be smuggled.
15:32Not really.
15:34Documentation is falsified as though it's coming from a legal mine.
15:37And that's a really tricky thing for law enforcement to deal with.
15:42The government does track how much gold is exported.
15:46In 2024, it shipped $4.1 billion worth.
15:50But that's far more than its licensed mines said they produced.
15:55Meaning the rest came from illegal or informal sites.
15:59For Colombia, it's been really hard to get data.
16:03But we know the majority is illegally sourced.
16:07We're talking at least $2 billion a year.
16:11A lot of it is exported as though it were a totally legal product,
16:14just like you would export sweatshirts or Coca-Cola.
16:18Most of the gold Colombia exports ends up in the U.S.,
16:22which in 2024, imported $1.5 billion worth.
16:27Most Americans perceive this as this remote problem that has nothing to do with us.
16:32And that couldn't be farther from the truth.
16:34As the number one destination for Colombian gold, the U.S. is involved.
16:40Julia says Miami is a major port of entry.
16:43Officials have seized illicit gold there in the past.
16:47That's one airport.
16:49That suggests a lot of this dirty gold is ending up here,
16:52either through formal export processes or through travelers
16:56who bring gold in their backpack or whatnot, fly into the airport.
17:00They're not necessarily going to go to jail.
17:03Gold is not an illegal product.
17:05If you have those same guys transporting a bag of cocaine,
17:08if they get caught, they're going to go to jail.
17:11So that makes the risk of doing business a lot lower.
17:15Once it enters the U.S., experts say it's laundered again through shell companies.
17:21We've had pretty weak money laundering policies, particularly with regard to anonymous shell companies.
17:26That continues to be a big vulnerability in our system.
17:31Now, Colombia is trying to tackle the problem at its root
17:35by giving artisanal miners like Juan Camilo better opportunities.
17:41For the past two years, he's worked for a local small-scale mining company in Segovia
17:47that sells its ore to a larger Canadian company called Eris.
17:52It has partnered with them under certain conditions.
17:56They visit the mine and tell them what's improving.
18:01The offices, the ventilation improvement, the ramps, the roadway, the access,
18:09all that, the baths.
18:11That's a process, because you know that everything is already economically.
18:18They go down a shaft that drops down 550 feet.
18:22But no one wears a harness.
18:25This displacement, I do daily, between five and six times,
18:29four and five times to go up and down.
18:31I keep it like a yoyo.
18:33I already put the fear to this.
18:37And that's how they were born, and that's how we're going to die.
18:39And that's how we're going to die.
18:46Miners have installed new equipment in here, like this pulley system.
19:11One's income isn't dependent on how much he collects.
19:15He's paid a steady salary by the small-scale mining company.
19:20It sells the ore exclusively to Eris, which provides a better rate for the gold than other buyers.
19:27Even though he loves this job, Juan says it's taken many of his friends.
19:33And he wants those who will someday wear this gold to know its true cost.
19:38He wants those who have gold.
19:42He doesn't know how many families are fighting every day to extract the gold.
19:49At the end of the day, what's most important for Juan is that his colleagues stay safe,
19:54and that he can keep mining beside them.
20:10We also went to an official Eris mine that is highly mechanized.
20:14Carlos Marios supervises a team here.
20:19He briefs the men before they head in for the day.
20:23This rail car takes them six levels down.
20:27In this mine, machines do most of the heavy lifting.
20:32Robotic arms drill holes for the dynamite.
20:35They take about 60 barrens.
20:37These barrens are 12 feet.
20:40Do you have a metro there?
20:43There you go, there you go.
20:46But Carlos' team mines where machines can't.
20:50Mineral.
20:52They rely on techniques they learned as artisanal miners.
20:57Eris supplies the protective gear and trains the men to check the walls before drilling.
21:04Mucha transferencia de conocimiento.
21:06Working with Eris, they earn a steady wage of about $100 a day,
21:11roughly five times the minimum wage in Colombia.
21:15Informal mining can pay more on a good day, but it's a gamble.
21:19Si no es atractivo, no van a dejar de ser informal, no van a dejar de arriesgar su vida.
21:24Estamos apuntando al paradigma del minero, de la forma de pensar.
21:28This kind of cooperation between Eris and local miners took years to secure.
21:34Y siempre les diciendo que cuidarnos todos.
21:36De nada tiene validez esto si nos morimos en la mina.
21:39No puedes seguir pasando esto.
21:41Una vida no se reemplaza por ninguna cantidad de onzas.
21:46All the material the men collect ends up here.
21:50The company processes about 2,000 tons of ore a day.
21:56It's separated into piles, depending on which mine it came from.
22:00Esta alimentación consiste en el proceso de trituración de nuestras minas con el producto de la minería externa.
22:10The ore is ground into a fine grain.
22:14Next, workers add chemicals, called collectors, that bind to the gold and make it repel water.
22:20Esta espuma que rebosa en estas celdas es el concentrado de oro y plata.
22:26At this stage, the gold is still mixed with other minerals, so this machine adds cyanide to dissolve it.
22:34The waste rock stays solid and filters out.
22:37A plant like this one recovers about 96% of the gold from the ore, far more than in formal
22:44operations.
22:46Esta área es la más importante para recuperar el oro.
22:53To recover it, they add zinc, which sticks to the cyanide, leaving the gold behind.
22:59The company chooses women for this part of the job, because they're seen as more detail-oriented.
23:05One is always stationed here, watching so that no gold gets lost.
23:19Eris also took us to its foundry, the final stage in the process.
23:28A giant oven heats the refined gold to over 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit.
23:32Just standing here for a few minutes could sear the men's skin, if they didn't wear these suits, that are
23:40designed to reflect heat.
23:42It takes two hours to melt one batch of gold.
23:49They let the bars cool and harden.
23:52But these aren't all pure gold.
23:56Sometimes they're silver mixed in.
24:04The lighter bars are the ones that contain more silver.
24:08Darker bars hold more gold, making them higher carat and pricier.
24:14The highest you can find on the market is 24-carat gold, which is 99.9% pure.
24:20But it's soft.
24:22That's why it's mostly used for ceremonial jewelry, not everyday wear.
24:27Or in the bars that back currencies.
24:30Some gold goes as low as 8 carats, which is just a third pure.
24:34It's tougher because of the added metals.
24:38But it loses its shine and color.
24:41Each bar is marked with a unique serial number that allows suppliers and buyers to trace it.
24:49Before it's sold and shipped off, Eris stores them here for safekeeping.
25:01Eris says it sells its bars mainly to European countries.
25:07Today, demand for this metal is booming.
25:10Many people hold onto it as a recession-proof investment.
25:14It's also increasingly being used in modern technology, like the GPUs that run AI, and smartphones.
25:22These days, consumers are pressuring tech companies to reveal their supply chains.
25:28And that's been challenging for Colombia, as reports have exposed the role gold plays in funding criminal groups.
25:36Now, many big mining companies are doubling down to prove theirs is sourced ethically and legally.
25:49Back in Marmato, James Rotavista is considering working with Eris too, to earn a more stable income for his wife
25:57and two children.
26:01Until then, he wants people to buy his gold, without criminalizing the only job he's ever loved.
26:09They hope that that gold goes from honest people, that they have the purpose of surviving their lives,
26:17so that those people can also wear that precious material that we love.
26:21We love them too.
26:24Here we have the Fe, the Marmateinos, San Antonio.
26:30A veces they give them bills.
26:32Lo raro is that they give them bills.
26:34Yes.
26:34Elisabeth唱es
26:36Elisabeth
26:37You
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