Lucia Chicaiza lives in northern Ecuador, in a sleepy farming town of just over 2000 people, at the foot of the Andes.
She also happens to live near a lucrative gold and copper deposit that has caught the eye of Australia’s richest person: Gina Rinehart.
Investigative reporter Marta Pascual Juanola spent a month in Ecuador investigating a mining industry that operates in shades of grey, where she found alleged worker exploitation, intimidation tactics and violence.

Further reading

• Mountains of Trouble: Bumpy road for Rinehart’s offshore mining push
• McLarens, Mar-a-Lago and machine guns: Introducing Gina Rinehart’s controversial new frontier point man

The Morning Edition brings you the story behind the story with the best journalists in Australia. Join host Samantha Selinger-Morris, from the newsrooms of The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age, weekdays from 5am.