Digging for Gold in Africa’s Most War-Torn Country

Gold has mezmerized humanity for thousands of years but the metal's surge to a record $1,900 an ounce in 2011 sent miners to ever-riskier places. Enter Kibali. Randgold Resources and AngloGold Ashanti bought the deposit deep in the jungle of northeastern Democratic Republic of Congo in 2009 as the country recovered from Africa's worst-ever civil war, which killed at least 3.1 million people. With pioneering hydropower and social cohesion plans, the companies have built one of Africa's biggest and most profitable gold mines. Photographs by Simon Dawson/Bloomberg