'Scratch the earth, there's gold!': small miners, big firms and armed gangs fight over Peru's mineral wealth

As the price of the precious metal soars to record levels, underground gunfights have erupted in the Andean region of Pataz as the mines' riches draw in brutal crime cartelsDeep in the mountains of northern Peru, a bloody war is being fought over gold. As its international price sets successive record highs above $3,000 (?2,220) an ounce, criminal gangs, illegal miners and established mining companies battle over the metal.The conflict is not fought out in the open but in a maze of tunnels that stretch for miles inside the mountains of Pataz, a gold-rich Andean province about 130 miles (200km) inland from Peru's third city, Trujillo. In early May, the bodies of 13 security workers were found shot dead, their hands bound and some showing signs of torture, in one of the tunnels belonging to an artisanal miner linked to the province's largest mining company, Poderosa. Continue reading...