# The gold bull-market has a dirty secret - Host: [economist.com](https://links.thingelstad.xyz/hosts/economist.com/) - Saved: June 26, 2025 (2025-06-26T22:45:47Z) - Record: https://links.thingelstad.xyz/links/e7fa790c751b/ - JSON: https://links.thingelstad.xyz/links/e7fa790c751b.json ## What Jamie wrote People are frequently critical of the energy footprint of Bitcoin. It is important to remember that Gold has a footprint too. > The gangs’ involvement is spurring violence and helping to prop up autocrats. Nicolás Maduro, Venezuela’s dictator, gives the army a free hand to work with gold-mining mafias in return for political loyalty. Colombia’s biggest gold mine, Buriticá, is the site of a stand-off between its Chinese operator and 2,000 miners linked to the Gulf Clan, a gang that stole $200m worth of the glittering ore from Buriticá’s tunnels last year. Since 2019 some 18 miners have died there. After a recent government crackdown in Bolívar, an illegal-mining hotspot in northern Colombia, the clan retaliated, killing more than 20 soldiers and policemen. Last month gunmen in Ecuador killed 11 soldiers during an operation to shut down an illegal mine. I suspect every currency or store of value has externalities and costs. ## Facts - Kind: [Page](https://links.thingelstad.xyz/kinds/page/) ## Appears in - [WT325: Weekly Thing 325 / Platform, Agents, Legacy](https://weekly.thingelstad.com/archive/325/), Notable ## Same host - [A New Year’s interview with Volodymyr Zelensky](https://links.thingelstad.xyz/links/719f2313f5c1/) (economist.com, January 4, 2024) - [The end of the social network](https://links.thingelstad.xyz/links/174dd522bd63/) (economist.com, February 5, 2024) - [How Tether became money-launderers’ dream currency](https://links.thingelstad.xyz/links/9cedadcb5144/) (economist.com, July 10, 2025) - [What if AI made the world’s economic growth explode?](https://links.thingelstad.xyz/links/e69d7ff9e622/) (economist.com, July 26, 2025) - [The dark horse of AI labs](https://links.thingelstad.xyz/links/5a3d7728f0cb/) (economist.com, July 27, 2025) ## Saved the same week - [Perplexity's new AI features are a game changer. Here's how to make the most of them - Fast Company](https://links.thingelstad.xyz/links/0f977cc9b49e/) (fastcompany.com, June 26, 2025) - [CC Signals: A New Social Contract for the Age of AI - Creative Commons](https://links.thingelstad.xyz/links/417183209b67/) (creativecommons.org, June 26, 2025) - [Brad Barrish - Some more detail about Linty Link](https://links.thingelstad.xyz/links/1a2f27543d9b/) (bradbarrish.com, June 26, 2025) - [Why the AI revolution needs tollbooths – Crazy Stupid Tech](https://links.thingelstad.xyz/links/8790ccaa8a81/) (crazystupidtech.com, June 26, 2025) - [From pair to peer programmer: Our vision for agentic workflows in GitHub Copilot - The GitHub Blog](https://links.thingelstad.xyz/links/f5f41015f5d1/) (github.blog, June 26, 2025) ## Elsewhere - Wayback Machine: https://web.archive.org/web/*/https://www.economist.com/the-americas/2025/06/26/the-gold-bull-market-has-a-dirty-secret