‘It’s a barbarity’: why are hundreds of families asking to be moved away from this Dominican Republic goldmine?

In the shadow of El Llagal, a tailings dam that holds waste from one of the world's largest goldmines in the Dominican Republic, sits the home of Casilda Lima. The roof is corrugated iron and the walls are wood, painted pink and yellow. A sign reads "God bless this home".

Outside,the 114-metre-tall grey wall of the dam looms large. Behind it lies a lake of waste from the mining process, where machinery and chemicals, along with a huge volume of water, are used to grind up rock to extract gold and silver. Many substances found in tailings are lethal, others are radioactive.

In 2014, Lima, 47, says she was told she had high lead and heavy metal levels in her blood. She says she has developed heart problems, and lives with headaches, nausea and fevers. She alleges it is because of the pollution from the Pueblo Viejo goldmine and the dam.

Pueblo Viejo, about 60 miles north-west of the capital Santo Domingo, lies within Sánchez Ramirez, a farming province that faces significant challenges in terms of poverty. The mine has had a number of different owners but became a 60/40 joint venture between the Canada-based Barrick Gold, the operator, and Newmont, a US corporation, in 2006. Barrick's mining operations started in 2013.

"I never suffered from anything before Barrick came," says Lima. "Now I have a lot of headaches and kidney problems. I find it hard to breathe and get very dizzy."

Lima's house is in Las Lagunas. She lives with her five children and two nephews who also have health problems. "My 23-year-son doesn't stop getting headaches and feeling dizzy," she says.

Las Lagunas is one of six communities, collectively home to more than 450 families, in the area surrounding the Barrick-built tailings dam, whose representatives have alleged grave harms to health, livelihoods and environment due to mining operations.