Christopher Pollon is the author of Pitfall: The Race to Mine the World’s Most Vulnerable Places, from which this essay has been adapted.

At Barrick Gold Corporation’s 2021 annual general meeting, I was waiting in an online queue with a few other journalists when my turn came to ask a question to chief executive Mark Bristow, who at that moment presided over the second-biggest gold mining company on Earth.

The case for leaving gold in the ground comes via ChinaTechNews.com.