Running from politics or hunger thousands of Zimbabweans have fled over the border to Mozambique. Zimbabwe has one of the lowest life expectancies in the world, the discovery of gold can literally save lives. The search destroys lives too. Diggers handle toxic mercury to extract gold from the red earth and risk suffocation at the bottom of fragile mine shafts that collapse burying occupants all too often. A few will find enough gold to change their lives, but most will not. Many will become ill and some will pay the ultimate price in their search for gold. Mozambique. July, 2010