Due to the instability of the stock market, international investors have turned to gold pushing the price to a record of $1,921 per ounce in 2011. With gold prices at historic highs, gold fever is sweeping across Colombia.

At a gold mine on the outskirts of Zaragoza, Antioquia, Colombia, in the region known as La Puercera, approximately 150 freelance gold miners pan for gold in a pit dug by the company which operates this gold mine.

The back hoe is used to scoop up the gold-laden mud, which is then processed by the gold mine using rudimentary machinery (not seen here). The panning miners are free to sift through the muck that is turned up by the mine, and they often make from 500 – 1000 USD/ month, a reasonable income for the countryside.

These panning miners generally do not use mercury or other chemicals in their process. Rather they rely on their eyes to spot tiny gold nuggets that emerge through the process of sifting and washing the earth in their pans.

Views of artesanal mine, Zaragoza, Antioquia. The soaring price of gold has propelled an estimated 200,000 families in Colombia into a frantic and anarchic gold rush.

Artesanal miner El Palo, Cauca.

Gold in artesanal miner's pan El Palo, Cauca.

Artesanal gold miner, former employee of the Frontino mine, now wildcatting in Segovia, Antioquia.

Rich vein of gold, worth potentially millions of dollars in the La Roca mine, Segovia, Antioquia.

Gold refining process, Gutierrez refinery, Medellín, Antioquia.

Street scene Segovia, Antioquia.

At the Gold Pineapple foundry Edwin Navarro notes down the weight and approximate density of the 171 gram ingot he produced by melting down the ore he purchased (from a total of 10 miners) during the day. He reports these figures to his superior in Caucasia, Antioquia, where the gold will be re-melted to remove more impurities.

View of gold mining zone in northern Antioquia department, as seen from police helicopter.

Many miners use mercury, a harmful neurotoxin, to separate gold particles from the surrounding soil, both in river-based and underground mining. The run-off of mercury introduces dangerous levels of this liquid metal into rivers, springs, and underground aquifers.

View of gold mining zone in northern Antioquia department, as seen from police helicopter.

Mines like these are taxed by illegal armed groups – either Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) guerrillas or criminal bands descended from partially demobilized paramilitary militias throughout the historic gold mining zone of northern Antioquia. The Colombian government is engaged in a police offensive against such “illegal mines” on the grounds that they are a source of financing for illegal armed groups, and that they contaminate the environment.

Miner uses mercury to separate gold in Segovia, Antioquia.

Mercury used to separate gold spilled onto ground in Segovia, Antioquia.

The statue towers over the main square of Segovia, Antioquia, one of the principal mining centers of Colombia. Segovia is the site of countless acts of violence in the past and a current, festering conflict between the traditional miners of the region and the Canadian multinational, Gran Colombia Gold Corp. The plaque at the base of the monument does not mention the name of the sculptor. Painted a gold color, the statue shows a naked woman, her ankles and wrists in shackles, raising the traditional wooden pan used by alluvial miners up to the sky. Her face is contorted in an anguished grimace, as a muscular miner hammers at her womb. He has split her open, revealing a lode of golden rocks jaggedly showing through the tear in her skin.

Segovia is the site of countless acts of violence in the past and present, festering with conflicts between the traditional miners of the region and the Canadian multinational, Gran Colombia Gold Corp.

Workers unload raw material from gold mine into "cocos" (or coconuts in English) as the spherical receptacles used to grind up such material and extact the gold particles within are called. The workers add mercury, honey paste, bleach and sometimes lemon juice to the mix, along with magnesium balls, and set the spheres turning by machine for approximately four hours, the first step in the gold extraction process. Segovia, Antioquia.

Artesanal gold refining business with detail of mercury use. Segovia, Antioquia.

Artesanal gold refining business with detail of mercury use. Segovia, Antioquia.

"Cocos" (or coconuts in English) as the spherical receptacles used to grind up such material and extract the gold particles within are called. The workers add mercury, honey paste, bleach and sometimes lemon juice to the mix, along with magnesium balls, and set the spheres turning by machine for approximately four hours, the first step in the gold extraction process. Segovia, Antioquia.

Magnesium balls used to crush rocks containing gold in refining process, Segovia, Antioquia.

Artesanal gold refining business with detail of mercury use. Segovia, Antioquia.

Artesanal gold refining business with detail of mercury use. Segovia, Antioquia.

Artesanal gold refining business. Antioquia.

A sign painted on the wall of a local refinery in Segovia, Antioquia warns of the presence of toxic chemicals like mercury and cyanide used to concentrate gold.

Mr. Dairo Rúa (center), at the time president of the Segovia section of the Sintraminergética miners union, flanked by bodyguards as he walks towards his home in Segovia, Antioquia. Like other leaders of the miners union, Mr. Rúa has been subject to numerous death threats, which he believes come form paramilitary groups opposed to the union's activity on behalf on the rights of mine workers.

Mr. Dairo Rúa (center), former president of the Segovia section of the Sintraminergética miners union, and currently city councilman is flanked by bodyguards as he speaks to an acquiantance in Segovia, Antioquia. Like other leaders of the miners union, Mr. Rúa has been subject to numerous death threats, which he believes come form paramilitary groups opposed to the union's activity on behalf on the rights of mine workers.

Bodyguard of Dairo Rúa practices firing his pistol in secluded area of Segovia, Antioquia. Like other leaders of the miners union, Mr. Dairo Rúa at the time president of the Segovia section of the Sintraminergética miners union, has been subject to numerous death threats, which he believes come form paramilitary groups opposed to the union's activity on behalf on the rights of mine workers.

Offices of the Segovia section of the Sintraminergética miners union, with photographs of assassinated union leaders on the wall. The union is still subject to numerous death threats, which leaders believe come from paramilitary groups opposed to the union's activity on behalf on the rights of mine workers.

Street scene in Segovia, Antioquia.

Jhon Jairo Zapata, a trade unionist shot five times apparently due to his opposition to the sale of the Frontino mine in Segovia, Antioquia to the multinational Gran Colombia Gold. Workers in Segovia argue that the mine belongs to them and that the Colombian government colluding with the multinational company stole the mine from them. 

Workers in the La Roca mine, Segovia, Antioquia.