Five hundred years after Spanish conquistadors arrived, gold is still a driving economic force in South America's Guiana Shield. But the industry depends on another element, one with deadly side effects for miners and rainforests: mercury.
A new report dives into the underworld of the mercury trade, as experienced across the Amazon region; in Bolivia, Guyana and Suriname.
In the past week, a Pittsburgh company and a dam that it owns have become a central political issue in Suriname, a forest land of fewer than 600,000 people north of Brazil.
The small country of Suriname learns about the curse of resource extraction as Alcoa moves out.
Frans Weewee and his family attempt to rebuild Brownsweg, Suriname, after the devastating effects of the Afobaka Dam.
Alcoa announced in January 2017 that it would permanently shutter the Paranam plant in Suriname. Daylight puts Paranam’s story in harsher light.
The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette comments on its four-part series.
Suriname's most successful businessman has interests in industries from cement to ketchup. He's heading a government commission negotiating Alcoa's departure from the country.
When Alcoa arrived to mine Suriname in 1964, it pushed the slave-descended Saamaka off their land. As the Pittsburgh icon prepares to leave the country, the Saamaka fight for their rights.
A struggling country's past and future are shaped by Alcoa and its aluminum. Alcoa's dam electrified the South American country of Suriname even as it drowned a jungle.
As Alcoa prepares to leave Suriname, residents wonder how and if they'll follow through on promises to repair thousands of acres of mined land.
A once thriving mining community rebuilds as the pullout of Pittsburgh's Alcoa sinks in.
Mercury, the toxic quicksilver that pumps through the veins of gold miners is a necessary evil to extract gold in the Amazon. In this series, we take you on a trip through the underworld of the trade.
Multinational Alcoa, in a restructuring, departs struggling Suriname after 100 years. The loose ends include a hydroelectric dam, two company towns, a long-loyal workforce, and a sputtering economy.
Suriname, with its pristine environment, has become a pawn in a new Great Game as the balance of power in the Americas shifts from the United States toward China.
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reporters Len Boselovic and Rich Lord and photojournalist Stephanie Strasburg talk about what went into producing their story, “The Land Alcoa Dammed."
Pulitzer Center grantee James Whitlow Delano traveled to Suriname to report on the Chinese population living and working in the small Amazonian country. James talks about his project in this video.
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette journalists and Pulitzer Center grantees honored for economic, investigative coverage in Suriname.
Grantee Stephanie Strasburg has taken over the @PulitzerCenter Instagram account to share her work from the project, "Stranded and Strapped: After 100 Years in Suriname, Alcoa Decamps."
This week: what happens when a corporation abandons a country, Marine Le Penn's nationalist stance, and how a country with rich natural resources remains an impoverished country.
Students explore the impacts of the century-long relationship between Alcoa, an American corporation, and Suriname. They then debate the terms of Alcoa's exit from the country.
This is a painting lesson that combines Pablo Picasso's famous 1937 Guernica with current day issues presented from The Pulitzer Center.
This is a painting lesson that combines Pablo Picasso's famous 1937 "Guernica" with current day issues presented by the Pulitzer Center.
This is a painting lesson that combines Pablo Picasso's famous 1937 Guernica with current day issues presented by the Pulitzer Center.
This lesson plan outlines a project that allows students the opportunity to connect with a contemporary crisis somewhere in the world.
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