<p>Fevered by hopes of striking it rich, illegal miners claw sacks of "money stone"—gold ore—from the Pra River in Ghana. Their toil feeds the world's hunger for gold, and leaves a ruined landscape in its wake.</p>

Fevered by hopes of striking it rich, illegal miners claw sacks of "money stone"—gold ore—from the Pra River in Ghana. Their toil feeds the world's hunger for gold, and leaves a ruined landscape in its wake.

The Real Price of Gold

The Price of Gold: In dollars and suffering, it's never been higher.

This story appears in the January 2009 issue of National Geographic magazine.
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