There's gold in them thar Madre de Dios

Gold made headlines in 2010, breaking to new highs above $1400/oz at times. The yellow metal is not the key commodity for South Africa it once was. Thirty years ago SA produced over 600 tonnes p.a. of the stuff. Now production is running at barely 200 tonnes. A lot of this is to do with the fact that SA gold is found deep underground, several kilometers in some mines, so getting to it has become increasingly expensive. Some analysts get quite hectic about gold, especially those who have it in for the US Federal Reserve whom they accuse of printing too much paper money. But the truth is that gold has not performed as strongly as some other commodities like steel scrap or even coconut oil (see this link http://www.businessday.co.za/Articles/Content.aspx?id=129304). The QSL is a gem from Radio Madre de Dios in south-eastern Peru, heard on the 60mb. There is gold here and much of it is mined illegally by miners who use mercury to dissolve the gold. This is causing environmental degradation in one of the world's beautiful jungles.