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Global 'mining mafia' feeds China's appetite for gold, Washington Post investigation shows
By Rebecca Tan
The Washington Post
Tuesday, August 12, 2025
LANTUNG VILLAGE, Indonesia -- Hilltop after hilltop in this remote part of Indonesia is being scalped of vegetation. On the horizon, excavators lumber forward, gouging out rocks veined yellow. Nearby, milky chemicals collect in Olympic pool-sized trenches.
This is the work of Chinese mining syndicates flush with capital and connections, Indonesian investigators say. And virtually none of it is legal.
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These syndicates bring their own geologic maps, excavators, and leaching tanks. They operate without permits, unchecked by local police -- the equivalent of what residents call a "mining mafia," in control of the most lucrative resource in these hills: gold.
"We don't know where they take it," said a Lantung gold trader, Heru Hairuddin. "We only know it doesn't stay here."
As part of a strategic effort to reduce reliance on the U.S. dollar, insulate itself from potential U.S. sanctions, and build its own capacity to influence the international monetary system, China is procuring gold at a voracious pace. This drive has fueled and facilitated a surge in illicit gold mining across the Global South, inflicting a trail of environmental destruction from Indonesia to Ghana to French Guiana, a Washington Post investigation found. ...
... For the remainder of the report:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2025/08/12/china-gold-illicit-mining-indonesia/
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