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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Yankee, post: 697602, member: 18618&quot;]Imagine an existence in the bowels of the earth where, for up to eight months at a time, there is no fresh air. The temperature between the walls that close in on you is a stifling 38C. There is no day and night as you drill for gold for 12 hours a shift. At your side is a weapon to protect yourself from the authorities and your fellow miners. To extract gold, you handle mercury so toxic that it can be absorbed through the skin, attacking the kidneys and brain. This is the life of South Africa’s gold pirates, a band of tens of thousands of unemployed men whose numbers have increased sharply in the past year with the soaring price of gold, a traditional haven for investors in a financial crisis. ( I wonder if any of the gold we buy comes from places like this?)<a href="http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/africa/article6850786.ece" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/africa/article6850786.ece" rel="nofollow">http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/africa/article6850786.ece</a>[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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