Join the Pulitzer Center for a film screening and discussion on the impact of natural resource extraction on the environment, indigenous populations, public health and corporate responsibility.
Gold, Guns and Garimpeiros
Damon Tabor on illegal gold mining activity in the jungles of French Guiana, where police all the way from France are trying to put an end to the practice.
With the price of gold skyrocketing, Brazilians have been crossing the border into the jungle of French Guiana, where illegal mine operations have been multiplying, in search of a new El Dorado.
An insider's view of late night blackmarket business with French Guiana's garimpeiro gold miners.
Illegal mining of gold contributes to the violent climate of French Guiana, but individuals also suffer due to unhealthy contact with mercury during the extraction process.
After Cayenne, I traveled to a ramshackle little town about 50 miles from the Brazilian border called Regina.
Narayan Mahon reports on illegal gold mining activity in French Guiana.
Gold is always a good business. It never goes bankrupt or needs a bail-out. Gold is the go-to investment when financial markets suffer.
On a recent Wednesday morning, we drove past central Cayenne's dilapidated houses and ramshackle shops to the gendarmerie HQ at the edge of the city for an interview with Colonel François Müller, the commander of French Guiana's gendarmes.
If people know anything about this place--and not many do--it's because of Steve McQueen. In 1973, McQueen starred in Papillon, a movie based on the book of the same name by Henri Charrière, a hustler in the French underground and accused pimp-murderer sentenced to a life in prison on French Guiana's infamous Devil's Island penal colony.
Pages
Gateways
Grantee
Narayan Mahon is a photojournalist based in Seattle, Washington. His work has been published in The Economist, The New York Times, The Guardian, Times of London...
Grantee
Damon Tabor is a Brooklyn, New York-based journalist who has traveled widely in Asia, South America, and Europe and covered subjects ranging from surviving kidnapping in a failed state to search and...