19
The river was a disaster area.
Chad knew that the big operations used mercury and cyanide to separate the gold out of the ore. That poisoned the water. Any fish that survived would be lethal to the fisherman.
But he’d never seen a big operation up close.
Normally the jungle overhung the banks of these small rivers. Here it had been knocked back forty meters to either side—half a football field—in places, even more. The narrow river was now caught in massive pools turgid with sludge, separated by vast dikes of chewed up dirt and gravel. It flowed, but in no relation to its original course. Silt-gray backwaters, massive eddies where the bank had been dug away—it was a meandering disaster.
Hundreds of workers were spread over the area doing incomprehensible tasks. Some wielded hammers
