Colombian cocaine farmers turn to gold-mining

[swissaustrian]

Interesting development in Colombia, clear sign of a bull market :wave: :

Farmers leave laborious jobs for more lucrative but often dangerous illegal gold-mining.
Cocaine farmers in Colombia are leaving the drug business and moving into illegal gold-mining.
Authorities have shut down scores of mines in the northwestern province of Cordoba in a crackdown on illegal mining that started in September. About 400 police took part in the sweep.
Communities near the unregulated mines suffer from the "improper use of mercury and other contaminating substances" found in soil and bodies of water, officials said.
Al Jazeera's Monica Villamizar reports from Norosi.

http://www.aljazeera.com/video/americas/2011/11/20111118193012665884.html

 

[DCFusor]

Yup. It's not like they were getting the street price of coke before - which might have made that a lot more lucrative for them than gold would ever be.

They should mine inkjet ink - the most expensive substance on the planet. Just ask HP.

Farmers seem to always get the short end of the stick. If they ever stood together and demanded, say, half the retail price of their product - it would be the end of the world for some outfits that now get about 70%+ of the markup.

 

[pmbug]

If the Colombian government was smart, they would be encouraging the farmers to mine responsibly and legally.

 

[bushi]

(...) it would be the end of the world for some outfits that now get about 70%+ of the markup..

...yep, and their risks/ROI is laughable, comparing to farmer's.

 

[DCFusor]

And, they somehow never seem to return much of it to shareholders.