PITFALL

A harrowing journey through the past present and future of mining this expertly researched account ends on a vision for how industry can better serve the needs of humanity A race is on to exploit the last bonanzas of gold silver and industrial metals left on Earth These metals are not only essential for all material comfort and need but for the transition to clean energy in the coming decades billions of tons of copper nickel silver and other metals will be required to build electric vehicles solar and wind installations and green infrastructure We need more metals than ever before yet the qualities and quantities are diminishing making the extraction process more polluting to land air and water And most of these metals will be mined from the global south where social conflict will only grow led by Indigenous peoples demanding a greater say in how their wealth is used The stakes couldn t be higher How can we mine the metals we need without replicating the environmental and human rights abuses of the past Pitfall is the compelling story of the quest to exploit the metals our civilization needs and at what cost to local people and their environments Beginning with the first waves of big foreign owned mines in the 1960s investigative journalis