Gold ... copper ... cobalt ..... minerals and violence over two continents .... one to listen to

The theft of land and the treasures of the earth from indigenous peoples is not new but the BBC's The Long View with Jonathan Freedland revisited the story fastening on the Black Hills of South Dakota and the Democratic Republic of Congo during 150 years of exploitation, violence and misery. 

Opal fields, Western Australia 1984

"In 1875, the US 7th Cavalry, led by Colonel Custer announced they’d found gold in the Black Hills of South Dakota, leading to a gold rush and the outbreak of the so-called Great Sioux War. 

150 years later, today in the Democratic Republic of Congo, armed militia fight for control of gold mines, and mining for copper and cobalt leads to mass displacement of people. Jonathan Freedland investigates links between mineral extraction and armed conflict, then and now.

With, Professor Kathleen Burk, Professor Emerita of Modern and Contemporary History at University College London and Guillaume de Brier, Researcher at the International Peace Information Service in Antwerp. Reader: Jason Barnett, Producer: Luke Mulhall"*

Location; BBC Radio 4

Picture; Opal fields, Western Australia 1984, from the collection of June Pound

*Minerals and Violence, The Long View, BBC Radio 4, https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m002dzfm