You mean alabama. Say louisiana or theres no dessert. This invitation is brought to you by bp and all of us who call the gulf home. [stopwatch ticking] this is a gold mine in Central Africa where men lift tons of dirt one pan at a time. The world is paying top dollar for the gold theyre producing, and those dollars are helping to fund the deadliest war since world war ii. Craig bovim is a local inhabitant and a surfer. He leads a group of concerned citizens who believe that chum makes sharks associate people with food. Bovim thinks that may be why a shark attacked him three years ago. He remembers it every time he looks at his hands. And i cant describe the fear that went through me then. I mean, its everybodys worst nightmare, and it was busy happening to me. The king of sushi is no longer treated like royalty. It is scraped and planed and then cut up into blocks. The industrys ability to supply the Global Market with inexpensive sushi has stoked demand, and thats created a mediterranean gold rush. Welcome to 60 minutes on cnbc. Im steve kroft. Precious commodities are, by definition, rare, valuable, and in high demand, and very often theyre located in places that are difficult to reach and sometimes dangerous. This Edition Features stories that take us down into the world of sharks, deep into the heart of africa, and onto the high seas for a look at the dark side of bigtime commercial fishing. We begin with gold. Theres a demand for gold for investments, for the circuits in cell phones and computers, and of course for jewelry. And mining it often comes at a huge cost, one of which you probably havent heard very much about. In the democratic republic of congo, gold and other minerals are fueling the deadliest conflict since world war ii. In november of 2009, scott pelley went to the heart of Central Africa and found a campaign of rape and murder being largely funded by gold thats exported to the world. This is a gold mine in eastern congo, dug from the side of a mountain by the bare hands and stooped backs of 100 men. Theyve lifted tons of dirt one pan at a time, building terraces as they descend. The hunger for gold drives men into the earth so that other men can kill. You good . Thank you. Anneke Van Woudenberg has spent ten years in congo. She investigated the mines for Human Rights Watch and wrote one of the most respected studies on the trade. You know, this is a little bit dangerous business, especially for those guys. Its particularly for those guys, and there are regular mudslides, rock falls. You know, the death rate is extraordinarily high in these mines. Tell me what the life of a congolese gold miner is like. You make maybe, if youre lucky, a dollar or two a day. You have no health care, no social insurance. You have nothing. People do it because they hope to become rich, but very few do. The people are destitute, but congo is the saudi arabia of minerals. In addition to gold, the earth is loaded with metals such as tin, copper, and something called coltan thats essential to the circuits in computers and cell phones. Our journey started beside lake kivu in the teeming city of bukavu. Eastern congo is spectacular, remote, and lawless. To get to the gold fields, we traveled through territory controlled by one militia, then another. We found this gold mine on the mwana river in the province of south kivu. The first thing you notice are the children. Families set them to work early, and for many, its the only life theyll know. Their method is at least 2,000 years old. They lay blankets in the riverbed and let the sediment collect in the fibers. The blankets are wrung out, and somewhere in all that mud is treasure. They mix mercury into the sediment, which chemically binds the gold together, and then they simply burn the mercury away. No one worries too much about the toxic fumes; the neurological damage from mercury may not show up for years. And you pour that out there . And there it is. There it is, about a quarter the size of a pencil eraser, but its gold. How much is this worth . He say this can be maybe five dollar. This could be worth 5 . Clink thats a sound thats behind what is now the deadliest war on earth. In 1996, uganda and rwanda invaded congo. Seven more countries joined in and started stealing congos resources. The invasion ended, but ever since, rebel militias and Government Forces have fought over local power, ethnic hatred, and control of the minerals. We heard it firsthand from former rebel soldiers. This a school that teaches guerilla fighters whove laid down their guns how to be civilians again. [speaking in foreign language] this former major told us that when his troops controlled a territory, he demanded gold from every miner every day. Male translator we collected gold, and then we went to buy medicines. We went to buy ammunition. We went to buy guns. Who sold you the ammunition and the guns . We would buy those things from Congolese Army soldiers. Hes saying that Government Troops sold weapons to him, the enemy. Congo is so destitute that even its army goes without pay and becomes just another predator among the villages. John prendergast worked on africa policy in president clintons white house. Now he runs a group called the enough project, that exposes war crimes. What keeps this war going . Well, you know, follow the money. Its good oldfashioned greed. We got kings and corporations and countries that have been plundering the congo for the last century. And todays version of armed groups, rebel groups, militia groups, the Government Army theyre all fronts for mafia organizations, basically, that extract these minerals and profit from their smuggling and export back to the United States and to europe for our jewelry, our cell phones, and our laptops. Mafia organizations . What do you mean by that . Because they dont have an ideology. Theyre not trying to build a government institution. The rebels are not fighting for any particular cause. They are extracting these mineralslike gold, like tantalum, tin, and tungstenin order to sustain themselves as predatory organizations. Is the violence increasing, decreasing . It spikes. It comes in phases, and its very localized. One recent spike centered on a village called kanyabayonga. We went there with United Nations troops and found that a rebel militia had raided the village and burned 70 homes. Why attack the civilian population . Its a very effective strategy. It scares the people. It terrorizes them into compliance. Its chaos. Its chaos that is organized in order to exploit the gold and other minerals for the enrichment of these armed groups, and it just keeps the cycle going and going until we break that cycle and begin to address the root issue here, which is the gold and the other conflict minerals. [ticking] coming up, the atrocities of gold trafficking. [speaking in foreign language] female translator one of my children was 15, another one 7, another one 6. And they were shot to death by the soldiers. Yes, they were shot to death. Golds terrifying toll when 60 minutes on cnbc returns. If you think running a restaurant is hard, try running four. Fortunately weve got ink. It gives us 5x the rewards on our internet, phone charges and cable, plus at Office Supply stores. Rewards we put right back into our business. This is the only thing weve ever wanted to do and ink helps us do it. Make your mark with ink from chase. Villagers caught in the combat pour into camps like the one we visited in the province of north kivu. Its a desperate place where a fist of flour can be, in the moment, as precious as gold. Fidel bafilemba is a relief worker for the International Rescue committee, a Global Charity that brings water and health care to the camps. How many camps are there like this in eastern congo . How many people are displaced . Oh, my god. Oh, my god. We have served so far 1 million individuals, displaced individuals. And to name specific camps here, i think we have over 100 camps within this country. [speaking in foreign language] female translator one of my children was 15, another one 7, another one 6. And they were shot to death by the soldiers. Yes, they were shot to death. The story of just one woman captures congo. We found her in the camp. We wont use her name, but she asked us to show you her face. Her village was destroyed by a militia, burned in 2007. In addition to the three children, she lost her husband and her parents. Your mother and your father were burned alive in their house. It wasnt only my family. There were about 280 people burned alive in their homes. She ran with three surviving children to a makeshift camp for the homeless, but then the camp was attacked and there was a second massacre. When that round of the killing began, the people fled to the relative safety of this United Nations post. Now this has grown into a camp of more than 13,000 people. In terms of food, theyre largely fending for themselves. Today the United Nations was distributing flour and beans and cooking oil, but the last time this happened was five months ago. Most the time, they forage for food outside the camp, and that is where she fell victim to the other atrocity of congo, rape. We went to look for food but also firewood mostly. And thats where we got raped by people in uniform. So these were soldiers who raped you. Very hard to tell whether they were soldiers or rebels. All we knew and all we saw is that they were in uniforms and were armed with machine guns. Its estimated 200,000 women have been raped in eastern congo. Rape is a weapon here and often a lethal one. Because of the suffering, the u. N. Has tried to stop the trafficking in congos illicit gold, but we found that the gold from these mines is being smuggled into world trade. All those nuggets are combined in border towns, and then the gold is slipped over the border to ugandas capital, kampala. Uganda and congo are right next to each other, but uganda has almost no Gold Production of its own. In 2007, uganda produced about 500 worth. But in the same year, it exported 75 million in gold. Almost all of that is coming from the war zone. How much . Maximum. We took a hidden camera into a trader called jit. We offered gold for sale, and we were clear it came from congo. He bought our gold. And we got a hold of internal ugandan records that list 228 International Shipments by jit and many others. U. N. Investigators say most of it is gold from congo relabeled as a product of uganda. After kampala, it heads to refiners in dubai and then out into the world. No one can say how much of the world market is fed by congo gold. The best estimates are around 1 , so its not likely any particular watch or wedding ring contributed to rape or murder. But we wondered how a consumer would know. Matt runci represents retailers as head of the trade groups jewelers of america and the responsible Jewelry Council. Does your certification mean, for example, the gold didnt come from congo . Source of origin is not yet a part of the councils framework. How do you keep that gold out of American Jewelry stores . One needs to know where the sources of controversy are if one is to try to prevent those sources from getting into the legitimate supply stream. Well, i think its been pretty well known for a long time where the sources of controversy are in congo. Well, in the eastern province, yes, it has. Jewelers know about the tragedy in congo, but its never been standard industry practice to trace gold to its source. Jewelers buy gold from middlemen; they dont ask where it comes from. It was seven years ago that the industry banned socalled blood diamonds from west africa, but up till now, it hasnt done the same for gold. Banning the gold is a noble goal but one that requires, i think, some thoughtful consideration and a positive engagement between stakeholders, governments, and industry to bring to achievement. And the industry stands ready to work with stakeholders and with government to achieve that end. Whats to talk about . Why cant the industry cut off the supply from congo and strangle the civil war there . There is absolutely no place and no need for debate around the question of whether any illegally sourced mineral ought to be part of the industry supply chain. It should not be. Walmart is the largest gold retailer in america. I believe thats correct, yes. What effect would it have if walmart simply declared that it would demand traceability all the way to the mine for all the gold that it sells . Theres no question in my mind that commercial pressure can and should and must be brought to bear. Why it isnt done . I dont think the questions been put to them, frankly. We put the question to them, and of the major jewelers we talked to, only tiffany said that it traces nearly all of its gold directly to a particular mine, and that ones in utah. And the responsible Jewelry Council says that its developing a system for the industry that will one day trace gold to its source. If congos gold is less than 1 of world supply, that still comes to more than 300 million a year, more than enough to keep the war going on forever, mining an inexhaustible wealth of misery. The gold mines in the eastern part of the democratic republic of congo continue to fund war in the region, but increasingly the world is taking notice and is trying to do something about it. Here in the United States in july 2010, Congress Passed the doddfrank act. It contains a provision that requires companies that file reports with the s. E. C. To conduct Due Diligence on their supply chain to determine whether any products contain conflict minerals, such as gold from the congo or a surrounding country. [ticking] oh, fantastic coming up, bob simon goes swimming with sharks. Are you clear with everything ive said so far, bob . Yeah, how do i get out . Thats next when 60 minutes on cnbc returns. S Customer Satisfaction is at 97 . Mmmm tasty. And cut very good. 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They even inhabit the nightmares of people who dont swim. So it comes as a surprise that more and more people these days are seeking out sharks and paying millions of dollars a year to get as close to them as they possibly can. But heres the rub the places where sharks are the most visible are the places where the sharks are becoming the most dangerous. As bob simon reported in august of 2009, shark attacks are on the rise, and many blame these attacks on shark tourism in a place which is called shark central. More than 35,000 tourists, americans and europeans mainly, come here every year, to the tip of south africa, where two oceans meet, with the hope of seeing what we were lucky enough to see. Whoa whoa a great white going after a seal, exploding out of the ocean like a cruise missile. Whoa take another look. Thats two toh 20 feet long getting air. This is the best place in the world to learn about th secret lives of these animals. So thats what attracts me here. The secret lives of these animals. Oh, very secret. So secret, says australian scientist aidan martin, that we know very little about great white sharks. We dont know how many there are or how long they live. Weve never seen them mate or give birth. Oh, fantastic look at that how such an enormous guy gets so far out of the water. Its essentially a projectile, and it has sacrificed maneuverability for speed. So its a little bit like having a truck trying to run down one of those bicycle couriers. I know weve all had fantasies about that. Excited the seals too. Theyre making a lot of noise. The sealsthats what its all about. What for us is a remarkable sight for the sharks is breakfast, and seals are their favorite food. Whoa whoa that was pretty impressive. That was fantastic it came out upside down. Were right next to seal island here, population 50,000. When you see a shark going for a seal, who are you rooting for . Well, i actually root for the seals. Chris fallows is a shark tourism operator. I think we can really relate to the situation of the seals. Theyre at home, sitting in the sun, happy and safe and having a wonderful time, and everythings great. But when they get hungry, theyve got to go out into the street. Correct. And in the street, there are a lot of rough characters. Yeah, its a catch22. Unfortunately for the seals, they need to go