Serra Pelada, Brazil, 1985. Mine workers use picks and shovels to break up ore in single plot claims of 2 metres by 3 metres. Serra Pelada was home to the largest gold rush in Latin American history from 1979 to the mid-80s. The workers, or garimpeiros, were paid US$2 to $3 per day (£3 to £4 in today's money). Up to 80,000 garimpeiros worked in the mine during the peak production period in the mid-80s. After numerous land slides and lack of enforcement of safety and health measures, the mine was closed by flooding the open pit area. A Brazilian joint venture headed by Colossus Minerals Inc and COOMIGASP was granted a license to open the mine in mid-2013.
Photograph: Robert Nickelsberg
Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, 2008. Bernard, 14, carries granite all day long. In this gravel-pit, hundreds of people work in horrendous conditions and many of them are children. Instead of going to school, they work all day in a dangerous environment where they are exposed to toxic smoke emitted from the burnt tyres used to explode the granite.
Photograph: Veronique de Viguerie
Carletonville, South Africa, 2012. Hundreds of striking gold miners gathered at Goldfields KDC West mine on 18 October 2012. The workers remained on strike defying ultimatums issued by the mine management for them to return to work or be dismissed. The mines were caught up in a wave of wildcat strikes that began in August 2012 at the Marikana platinum mine. These turned violent resulting in the deaths of 36 miners and two police officers. Photograph: Gallo Images/Getty Images Europe
Dubai, 2006: Exhausted migrant construction labourers working in Dubai take advantage of a break to get some sleep. The majority of workers come to Dubai from India, Pakistan and Bangladesh and live in labour camps. The camps are often over two hours away and the labourers work 12 hour shifts. They operate in extreme temperatures in the desert climate and the majority earn under US$200 (£130) a month. Many have to spend a third of that sum on food provided at the camps as part of their contract. Most sign recruitment contracts in their own countries which take them into debt for many years. Their passports are held by their employers once they reach Dubai and if the company owners abscond the workers are often abandoned without their documents or due payment. Photograph: Brent Stirton/Getty Images AsiaPac
Rangoon, Burma, 2007. Children work in a charcoal store. Photograph: Chien-min Chung/Getty Images AsiaPac
Helmand Province, Afghanistan, 2006. This teacher received many death threat letters from the Taliban because they disapproved of her teaching girls. Photograph: Veronique de Viguerie/Edit
Most, Czech Republic, 2009: A view of the town of Most blanketed by early morning inversion smog in the Czech Republic. The northern part of the Czech Republic next to the border with Germany has problems with air pollution due to the many coal pits and heat power plants. Photograph: isifa/Getty Images Europe
La Oroya, Peru, 2008. A mother calms her child as the Ministry of Health draws blood to test the lead levels in his blood. This was the last day of a month long of free testing for children up to the age of five. Studies show that nearly all of the children living in La Oroya have lead poisoning due to the proximity of a metal processing plant. Photograph: David Rochkind/Getty Images South America
Beijing, China, 2013: Beijing residents wearing masks walk in front of a fog-shrouded National Grand Theatre as severe pollution continues to affect the capital. China's ruling Communist party announced temporary emergency measures in an attempt to combat the current hazardous levels of pollution enveloping Beijing. Photograph: Lintao Zhang/Getty Images AsiaPac
Jerusalem, Israel, 2012: Former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert (on the right) talks with his attorney during his sentencing hearing for a corruption case at Jerusalem's District Court on 24 September 2012. According to reports Olmert's punishment was light, he received a one year suspended sentence and a US$18, 000 (£12,000) fine for his conviction in the corruption case that forced him from office. Photograph: Pool/Getty Images Europe
