JUSTIN SCHECK2026年10月20日在世界各地无证经营的金矿中，劳工虐待与犯罪现象并不难被发现。前提是有人前去查看。 Lynsey Addario for The New York TimesIn the past year, I’ve seen toddlers working in gold mines. I’ve met miners who pay a drug cartel for the right to dig, and watched a boy drink from an underground mine’s wastewater pipe. I met workers in Colombia whose hands tremble from mercury poisoning.过去一年里，我见过蹒跚学步的幼儿在金矿里干活。我见过矿工向贩毒集团交钱换取挖掘权，也见过一个男孩从地下矿井的废水管里喝水。我在哥伦比亚遇到的工人，双手因汞中毒而不住颤抖。One thing they have in common is that they supply gold to the supposedly tightly controlled marketplace of Wall Street financiers, central banks and government mints.他们有一个共同点：他们向华尔街金融家、各国央行和政府造币厂那个据称受到严格管控的市场供应黄金。As my colleagues and I unraveled how that was possible, we kept coming back to one key point: The people who are supposed to keep dirty gold out of the legitimate marketplace rarely actually visit the mines.当我和同事们一步步拆解这何以成为可能时，我们反复回到一个关键点：那些本应把“脏黄金”挡在合法市场之外的人，很少真正踏足矿场。That’s the gaping hole at the center of the world’s mainstream gold market. The industry has layers of people tasked with certifying that supplies are free from abuse and criminality, but nobody makes them leave their desks in places like London and Geneva.这就是世界主流黄金市场核心处的巨大漏洞。这个行业有诸多层级的人员负责确认供应不涉及虐待与犯罪，却没有人迫使他们离开伦敦和日内瓦等地的办公桌。The Times this week reported that the London Bullion Market Association, the closest thing the industry has to a regulator, has repeatedly allowed gold into the market that has been mined by criminal gangs, a drug cartel and children. In one case, we found the association helped a refiner paper over apparent violations.《纽约时报》本周报道称，伦敦金银市场协会——行业中最接近监管机构的存在——已多次允许由犯罪团伙、贩毒集团和儿童开采的黄金进入市场。在其中一起案例中，我们发现该协会帮助一家精炼商掩盖了明显的违规行为。Human rights abuses and criminality are often obvious, if you show up and ask. Earlier this year, I visited a mine in Northern Colombia, where miners told us they pay a drug cartel for the right work there. The gold was certified as meeting the industry’s highest standards, and was sold to a supplier of the U.S. Mint.侵犯人权与犯罪行为往往显而易见，只要你到场问一问。今年早些时候，我走访了哥伦比亚北部的一座矿，矿工告诉我们，他们向一个贩毒集团交钱，以换取在那里工作的权利。这些黄金被认证为符合行业最高标准，并卖给了美国造币厂的一家供应商。Similarly, my colleagues revealed that President Trump hurriedly allowed gold imports from Venezuela before independent inspectors could visit the mines and before traders had finished their due diligence.同样，我的同事们披露，特朗普总统在独立检查员得以走访矿场之前、在交易商完成尽职调查之前，就匆忙允许从委内瑞拉进口黄金。马达加斯加北部，村民在马达黄金矿业公司的废水中淘金。Venezuelan mines are notoriously linked to corruption and criminality; the national gold company is designated a U.S. security threat. The importer hired one of the world’s top supply-chain experts, who praised the import plan without ever visiting the mines.委内瑞拉的矿场以深陷腐败和犯罪问题而闻名；该国国有黄金公司被美国列为安全威胁。进口商聘请了世界上最顶尖的供应链专家之一，此人在从未走访矿场的情况下称赞了这项进口计划。A Times reporter visited and quickly found that gangs were profiting from the gold.一名《纽约时报》记者前去走访，很快发现犯罪团伙正从这些黄金中获利。I visited mines in Madagascar where children panned for gold in raw sewage and workers hammered rock, with no helmets or shoes, in shafts hundreds of feet deep. Adolescents said the pull of gold is stronger than that of school.我走访了马达加斯加的矿场，儿童在未经处理的污水中淘金，工人们在数百英尺深的矿井里锤击岩石，没有头盔也没有鞋。青少年们说，黄金的吸引力比学校更强。“I’ve already tasted money,” said a 15-year-old boy named Fredo who hauls 20-liter water tanks for miners.“我已经尝过钱的滋味了，”一个名叫弗雷多的15岁男孩说，他为矿工搬运20升的水罐。Four decades ago, the Bank of England regulated the gold market, effectively as an arm of the British government. But in 1987, it passed its oversight to the L.B.M.A., an industry group run by the world’s biggest banks and refiners.四十年前，英格兰银行监管着黄金市场，实际上充当着英国政府的一个部门。但在1987年，它把监管权交给了伦敦金银市场协会(LBMA)，这是一个由世界最大银行和精炼商运营的行业组织。For years the L.B.M.A. was mainly concerned with gold purity and weight, not rights abuses and environmental damage. Gold was so much cheaper then. So illegal gold mining, while problematic, was not nearly as profitable, widespread and catastrophic.多年来，LBMA主要关注黄金的纯度和重量，而非权利侵犯与环境破坏。那时黄金要便宜得多。因此，非法采金虽然有问题，但远没有如今这样有利可图、普遍且具有灾难性。But over the past two decades, wealthy investors and governments fueled a price run-up that sent gold to record highs (today’s price is roughly four times what it was in 2010). A destructive illegal-mining boom followed in some of the world’s poorest places.但在过去二十年里，富有投资者和政府推动了一轮价格涨势，将黄金推至历史高点（今天的价格大约是2010年的四倍）。随后，世界上一些最贫穷的地方出现了一轮破坏性的非法采矿热潮。Miners, and criminals who profit from them, have rushed into areas that are ecologically and politically sensitive, and often dangerous.矿工以及从中获利的犯罪分子涌入了生态和政治敏感、且往往危险的地区。产自马达加斯加莫拉费诺一处无证金矿的黄金。 Lynsey Addario for The New York TimesBrazilian gangs have moved mining barges hundreds of miles upriver, into some of the Amazon’s most remote corners. Gold mines have dumped millions of tons of waste into Papua New Guinea’s rivers. Close to 200 people have died this year at mines in Uganda, the Central African Republic, Sudan and Sumatra.巴西的犯罪团伙将采矿驳船沿河向上游移动了数百英里，进入亚马孙一些最偏远的角落。金矿场已将数百万吨废物倾倒入巴布亚新几内亚的河流。今年在乌干达、中非共和国、苏丹和苏门答腊的矿场已有近200人死亡。In an effort to fight the worst abuses, the United States and the European Union passed laws attempting to exclude so-called “conflict minerals” from the global supply.为打击最严重的虐待行为，美国和欧盟通过了法律，试图将所谓的“冲突矿产”排除在全球供应之外。In response, the L.B.M.A. issued rules aimed at eliminating money laundering, corruption, organized crime and child abuse from the supply chain. Since 2012, refiners have had to conduct annual audits to show that they followed those rules.作为回应，LBMA发布了旨在从供应链中消除洗钱、腐败、有组织犯罪和虐待儿童行为的规则。自2012年以来，精炼商必须进行年度审计，以证明其遵守了这些规则。One major requirement: Refiners who process gold from small-scale operations must inspect the mines. This is different from government inspections. Officials in corrupt governments or countries with weak human rights records have an incentive to say that their gold is mined cleanly. The industry inspections are meant to ensure it.一项主要要求是：加工小规模作业产出黄金的精炼商必须检查矿场。这与政府检查不同。腐败政府或人权记录糟糕的国家的官员有动机宣称其黄金是用干净的方式开采的。行业检查旨在确保这一点。But loopholes and lax enforcement mean inspections don’t always happen. If gold from a high-risk mine passes through a middleman, for example, the refiner can obscure its source. That’s how drug cartel gold ended up at the U.S. Mint and the Royal Canadian Mint. The drug connections melted away in a cauldron of gold in Texas.但漏洞和执法松懈意味着检查并不总能落实。例如，如果来自高风险矿场的黄金经过中间商，精炼商就可以掩盖其来源。这就是贩毒集团的黄金最终进入美国造币厂和加拿大皇家造币厂的方式。毒品关联在得克萨斯州的黄金坩埚中消融了。In Madagascar, gold from unlicensed mines sailed into the legitimate marketplace. Despite the L.B.M.A.’s written rules, the refiner said it did not need to inspect the mines itself. The gold was certified as meeting the highest levels in the industry.在马达加斯加，来自无证矿场的黄金顺利进入了合法市场。尽管LBMA有书面规则，该精炼商却表示自己无需检查矿场。这些黄金被认证为符合行业最高标准。Justin Scheck是《纽约时报》驻伦敦记者。翻译：经雷点击查看本文英文版。