Pollution: Losing Some Luster; With gold prices skyrocketing, environmentalists are taking aim at one of the world's dirtiest industries.

Byline: Jimmy Langman

At first Mario Mautz didn't think much about the Pascua Lama gold mine, 60 kilometers from his fields in Huasco, an agricultural valley in northern Chile. But then Mautz, who grows avocados and fruits, learned that the mine would displace tons of glacier ice, which waters the valley, and contaminate rivers with cyanide and other toxins. In November he and hundreds of other residents dumped chunks of ice, a symbol of glaciers at risk, at the presidential palace in Santiago. "Unless they can guarantee that their cyanide and toxic-metal pollution will not harm us, our water and the glaciers, the project should be canceled," says Mautz.

Angry locals aren't the only obstacles gold-mining firms face these days. As the price of gold skyrockets--it has more than doubled since 1999 and hovers at about $595 an ounce, a 25-year high--companies have redoubled their efforts to open new mines. But environmental groups are now targeting the industry in the hopes of stalling further expansion.

Each ounce of pure gold requires removing 20 tons of rock on average, leading to rubble heaps the size of 30-story building. The most serious environmental problems come from "cyanide heap leaching," the ...