Midas Men

For fans of Patrick Radden Keefe and Oliver Bullough - a gripping story of multinational power, human greed, violence and gold

Gold runs the world. Even now, in the age of Bitcoin and A.I., behind the scenes true wealth is staked on a mineral whose value has exploded over 900% in thirty years. Behind that precipitous rise: a web of mines and shell companies, a trail of environmental destruction and criminal collusion, and one corporation with the key to it all.

In this compulsive and sweeping corporate thriller, investigative journalist Richard Poplak follows Barrick Gold Corporation's shocking ascent to become the world's most powerful gold-mining company. From the Holocaust survivor and Saudi-Arabian arms dealer who founded it, to the politicians and mercenaries who enabled its growth - and the activists who risked everything to fight back - this is the Shakespearian tale of the people, power, money and violence that built an empire and changed the world.