THE smokestacks on Mesel Hill are dormant. Black clouds no longer billow through the night. No groan of machinery sounds from the slope. There is now just the occasional gust of wind as a reminder. Near the foot of the hill, large tanks with pipes as wide as human thighs silently protrude. Stone-crushing machines are idle, as if in reflective thought.

In a matter of days, signs of activity have declined drastically at this North Sulawesi gold mi