Gold and silver have rallied and have more room to run, Citi's head of commodities research said. He says the best bull markets for gold and silver happen when markets in the US and Europe weaken as China strengthens. His comments come as gold and silver prices have rallied, with gold recently notching all-time highs.

Brazil's federal government on Friday reached a multibillion-dollar settlement with the mining companies responsible for a 2015 dam collapse that the government said was the country's worst-ever environmental disaster.

Financial fears and geopolitical tremors combine to great effect

Something strange has happened to the price of gold over the past year. In setting one record level after the other, it seems to have decoupled from its traditional historical influencers, such as interest rates, inflation and the dollar. Moreover, the consistency of its rise stands in contrast to fluctuations in pivotal geopolitical situations.

Water from a polluted river in Ghana was so thick and discoloured that an artist was able to use it as paint to depict the environmental devastation caused by the illegal gold mining that has spread like wildfire in the resource-rich West African state.

The price of gold has soared to new heights this year and is positioned to climb into early 2025, rising to new record highs, according to Goldman Sachs Research.

Meet the young geometallurgist, Steve Chingwaru, who has uncovered a $24bn gold resource – 420 tonnes – in buried mining waste.

At least 23 million people around the world live on flood-plains contaminated by potentially harmful concentrations of toxic waste from metal-mining activity, according to a study.

To go green, the world will need vast quantities of critical minerals such as manganese, lithium, cobalt and rare earth elements. But to some environmentalists, mining to save the planet is a hard pill to swallow if it leads to damage to pristine areas.

In a world driven by consumerism where the majority of products fail to be recycled, mining remains essential for providing resources to help economies grow and improve standards of living. However, is this causing us to dig ourselves into a growing hole of issues? We examine the biggest environmental problems caused by mining.

The January 2019 collapse of a dam in Brumadinho, Brazil, sent mining tailings and mud over the landscape for miles, destroying this bridge and killing 300 people.

Most consumers don’t know where the gold in their products comes from, or how it is mined. Gold mining is one of the most destructive industries in the world. It can displace communities, contaminate drinking water, hurt workers, and destroy pristine environments. It pollutes water and land with mercury and cyanide, endangering the health of people and ecosystems. Producing gold for one wedding ring alone generates 20 tons of waste.

After decades of mining, large swathes of the population are thought to be exposed to toxic and radioactive mine waste.

Mining is a major economic activity in many developing countries. In South Africa, mining of gold, coal and other natural resources has played a significant role in the country’s economy, with both positive and negative consequences.

More than a century of Gold Mining has left towering piles of bleached mine waste, known as "tailings," all over Johannesburg's landscape. Discovery of gold in the region in 1886 led to the township's founding and transformed a small, isolated farming community into South Africa's largest city. The extraction industry has been part of Johannesburg's identity ever since. The mountainous mine dumps have been a feature of the city for so long locals barely even notice them.

Johannesburg is filled with mine dumps left by the gold rush that began in 1886. Nearly 2 million people live on or near the 6 billion tons of earth in the city's bleached-white and yellow tailings. Photographer Jason Larkin explores these dumps and shows how they are integrated into the sprawling metropolis's landscape, as well as repurposed to extract further gold. His book on the project, Tales From The City of Gold, will be published by Kehrer in October.