What's Holding Indonesia Back?

Photograph for TIME by John Stanmeyer—VII

Fishermen in North Sulawesi, site of a controversial mining project

Dave Morrison sits on top of an estimated $800 million in gold but can't get his hands on any of it. The 42-year-old Australian engineer went to the tropical island of Sulawesi in Indonesia's east five years ago to open a gold mine on a palm-studded hillock outside the provincial capital, Manado. He has yet to overturn one shovel of ore. A half-built processing plant sits idly alongside a dirt track. Among the only signs of activity to be spotted are in the picturesque bay nearby, where fishermen paddle wooden canoes. The mine's operator, Perth-based Archipelago Resources, has faced...

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