Pure Gold? exhibition

Luxury for the few, poverty and injustice for the many

A new photographic exhibition explores the impact of gold mining on communities around the world.

Gold - the symbol of love, wealth and power. Yet many communities in developing countries have a different view; for them it symbolises conflict, environmental destruction and toxic pollution.

While gold mining can create huge profits for multinational mining companies, it can destroy the lives of some of the world’s poorest people.

Through the striking images of two award-winning photojournalists, CAFOD’s Pure Gold? exhibition reveals the hidden harm caused by gold mining across three continents.

Richard Wainwright documents the reality in the Democratic Republic of Congo – where gold has contributed to a cycle of violence and poverty. Read an interview with Richard Wainwright here.

Annie Bungeroth depicts the communities in Honduras who have had their water supplies poisoned with cyanide.

In the Philippines, she shows indigenous people fighting back after seeing their sacred mountain destroyed to make way for a gold mine.

CAFOD, the Catholic Agency For Overseas Development, is working to turn gold from a curse into a blessing for the countries where it is mined – this powerful new exhibition gives you the chance to support our campaign.

For details, dates and venues, visit www.cafodpuregold.net or call the campaigns hotline on 020 7095 5692.

Press contacts:

Tim Sowula at CAFOD on 0207 095 5561 / 07908207749 or tsowula@cafod.org.uk

Rashmi Mistry, CAFOD Unearth Justice Campaign Manager and Sonya Maldar, CAFOD Extractives Policy Analyst are also available for interview.

NOTES TO EDITORS

Democratic Republic of Congo

As the Congo emerges from a bloody five-year conflict, foreign mining companies are returning. Will gold mining bring jobs and money for schools, hospitals and roads? Or will it, as so often before, help to fuel corruption and conflict, while contributing little to the country’s shattered economy?

Richard Wainwright photographed people in the town of Mongbwalu in the Ituri District of north-eastern Congo, where Anglo-Gold Ashanti, the world’s third biggest gold producer, plans to open a large-scale mining operation in an area where half the population currently work as unofficial, small-scale miners.

Honduras

In aftermath of Hurricane Mitch in 1998, the Honduran government drew up a new mining law designed to attract foreign investment to help the country rebuild.

But the tax breaks and concessions the law gives mining companies mean the Honduran people gain little, while the impact on their environment, livelihoods and health is the cause of public outcry.In the drought-prone Siria Valley, Annie Bungeroth photographed people whose water supplies have been poisoned with cyanide from Honduras’s biggest gold mine, owned by Canadian multinational Goldcorp.

Philippines

Between 1995 and 2015, roughly half of the world’s gold will have come from indigenous people’s lands, all too often without the consent of those communities.

One of the most notorious cases, photographed by Annie Bungeroth, is that of the Subanon people of Mount Canatuan in the Philippines, where mining company TVI has mined ancestral lands since 2002.Resistance by indigenous people displaced by the mine has been met with violent attacks by paramilitary guards. After visiting Mount Canatuan in 2007, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Indigenous Peoples noted that, in the Philippines, the “militarization of indigenous areas is a grave human rights problem”. “My message is simple: please help us make the mining company leave us alone. We didn’t give consent, but still they came.” Subanon farmer and father of three, Bernardino Anoy.

The photographers

Annie Bungeroth – Honduras and PhilippinesAnnie Bungeroth combines commissioned work for international development agencies with long-term personal projects.

These include depicting the effects of HIV/AIDS in Peru, which was the subject of her MA at the London College of Printing and was shown at the International Aids Conference in Barcelona and the London Lighthouse.

She runs photography workshops in communities in the UK and overseas and was the trainer for CAFOD's highly acclaimed ethiopialives.net training of 19 photographers in Ethiopia.

She is also a founding director of ProExposure, which promotes the work of photographers from developing countries.

Richard Wainwright – CongoA Documentary Photography graduate of the University of Wales, Richard Wainwright is widely published and works closely with aid agencies reporting news and humanitarian issues. His subjects have included the refugee crisis in Chad, drought in northern Kenya, the aftermath of the tsunami in Aceh and child soldiers in Liberia and Uganda.

His photos for the Corbis picture agency include the presidential elections in Afghanistan and Yasser Arafat’s funeral in Ramallah.

His exhibitions include Sunday Times Ian Parry Awards 2001/02, Association of Photographers Document Awards 2005. Amnesty International Human Rights Week Jersey 2005/06/07 and The Press Photographers Year 2007.