This story about alluvial gold mining in Peru on the BBC news site reminds us that the real price of gold all too often is environmental destruction, mercury pollution and ecological catastrophe.

A previously pristine area of world environmental significance has been opened up and is being literally destroyed by mostly illegal gold mining activities, which are of course spurred on by the current high price of gold.

As many gold industry commentators wring their hands over the small drop in the spot price to under $1100 an ounce, perhaps they should be looking at the bigger picture and working on a sustainable production verification system for gold products, so the end consumers of gold, you and I, can be sure we are not supporting such baleful activities - even though we can sympathize with the impoverished Peruvians driven to make a living this way.

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