usually two people work together in black pens gold with his elder brother first they have to find just the right place. and you should look for places like this one over the water brings gold from the mountain top of the gold is heavy so it gets stuck at river bandits that's where we search for it. this is what we call timid and iron stone it is heavier than a usual stone as it contains a lot of metal if there are a lot of them it means there is also gold here. once the right spot is found the gold panels get down to business the technique is basic

one person stands in the water and shovel sand from the riverbed then they sift it on an ordinary come at every possible is of gold to get stuck in the indentations. step is intensely hoping to see tiny flakes of the precious metal in the sand. a little bit further up the river behind pink world we once plant fourteen grams in just a couple of hours. but that was long ago it was a great joy but we stopped panning then and went home to celebrate. every morning i ask allah for help so that he gives me gold and i know that he will give it to me. always helps me. i find gold every day sometimes more sometimes less. one and i. i had a dream that i came across

a nugget weighing ten kilograms and i was giving this gold away to other people in my dream and the next morning after that dream i panned a lot of gold. the water in the golden river is incredibly cold pending can take up to six hours a day. and his brothers have to work need higher water they often get painful cramps in their legs and have to rest on the riverbank. searching for gold isn't a bad thing because river gives us pure. sends it to us it's much better to be working here standing in clean water and searching for them being a guest worker in russia. world is now limited to his parents yard just like elton back he's a father of two he also used to pan rivers for gold. two years ago to their bikes

leg was amputated spending so much time in the icy mountain waters gave him a chuma by the time he saw a doctor it was too late. i get a social security check every three months it's rare that a social worker visits they don't seem to be interested in how i live. but sometimes they bring me a few small presents for the holidays. according to official data there are two dozen gold panels registered in the charcoal region but in reality there are many more local authorities are aware of illegal prospecting but choose to turn a blind eye rather than ruining livelihoods by demanding they obtain a license. basically

they have to get a license and pay taxes but living conditions in the region on good and many people are very poor. so we don't always make them do it. in winter they spend all day standing in the water even when it's up to minus forty degrees but they don't do that because they have good lives. here in kurdistan is very and klondyke people can say that the gold they gather is for personal use for example to make dentures from the precious metal a golden smile here is a symbol of prosperity and is considered the equivalent of a healthy bank deposit. well i don't feel any reverence for gold i mean they bring it to me and i make tea for them i take money for what i do it's just the material to me. golden tee to make

them more beautiful basically having gold in your mouth is very healthy it helps gesture. a feeling that everything ok here. is meeting with the head of the gold palace family he first met a year ago the old man sold him twenty grams then this year's yield is much more modest when the youngest son killed took his own life the best goaltender in the family had been lost. when the gold rush started a gram of gold could be sold for

a thousand. that's around twenty dollars now the prices doubled. has a different figure in mind. right. every day is different but on average we get about a gram and a half a day last time i sold some gold for about three hundred dollars it's good if we have enough money to buy the necessities like flour tea sugar and salt is not that expensive doesn't make you rich it's the end of the haymaking season now so soon everyone will be at the river panning winter is coming. only in the winter it's dangerous to do it in the summer. when soil is frozen it gets stronger the soil we dig out is taken to the river where it is broken down

by the water this new sand is then pound for. unfortunately while digging there is always the threat of being killed in a. brother kill used to work in these makeshift mines dug into the rocky banks of the river. my brother a kill used to work in this mine he was a good man but it's upsetting to talk about him. the reason i prefer not to talk about to kill suicide is that they suspect they know what drove him to it. suicide is about the only way to escape from the poverty and medieval lifestyle on the banks of the golden river a grim and symbolic reflection of the region.

secret. to build a new. mission to teach me. this is why you should. only.

wealthy british soil it's time to. market why not. find out what's really happening to the global

economy because the report. before. we have a lot of. groups. also argues in the right enough. but wasn't. the smadi when i was. here can. only do it through the barrel of a gun the social changes will be the afghans themselves afghan men and women. and. without but. it's coming up on the shelf and at a construction stuff people in the obama administration talking about how much they care about the women of afghanistan it's not true they don't care about the women

of afghanistan. the. soon which brightened if you move my son from funds to parachute in some. plane starts on t.v. don't come.

very late. or you surrender only leaves his film stood a couple of times a year today is one of those exciting moments ahead of the launch for. really is going to the market place in the administrative center of the region he wants to stock up for the winter and buy a lamb for a festive occasion selling the gold brings him the money he needs.

your brother is everything ok. it's been too long. good to see you once knew. as everywhere in central asia as marketplace on a sunday is like a forum people come here to talk about the latest news and to share gossip. i came to buy a lemon pay one hundred dollars for it i also bought some groceries i listen to what the elders had to say and it appears all is quiet around here and everybody is talking about the winter most likely it will be bitter cold january temperatures sometimes drop to thirty six thirty seven degrees below zero. point zero.

is a man who buys up gold he's been in the business for almost ten years although strictly speaking it's not entirely legal but almost no longer worries about his safety he's already made friends with some local policemen and competitors on his way back he makes a point of paying a courtesy visit to one of them the region's unofficial bus goes by the name of god . can you tell me the way to ask us house. turn right. thank you. just in time as preparing for. great festive occasion his youngest son is about to go through the ritual of circumcision the wealthiest man in the gold valley invites guests to his house where conversation inevitably drifts towards the grand occasion

and of course gold. they've been digging up gold here for centuries don't believe those who says it's only been mined for the past fifteen years the technique has been passed down to us from our forefathers but then foreign companies brought their intel still methods in which are damaging the environment my son might end up asking me why we did nothing to prevent this what worries me. most of the foreign companies here are chinese and canadian they have actually been mining gold for several years every now and then almost bumps into temporary townships for miners as he continues on his journey heavy machines grind tons of sand on the river banks the foreign business methods irritate local people.

some fifteen years ago i don't remember exactly but foreign firms came here mostly chinese and indian. there are also many russian prospecting companies to. the chinese bring their own workers with them. sometimes the locals just wouldn't let the chinese workers do their jobs. but neither side resorted to fighting fortunately. it was never big news and it all petered out eventual. where nazi. in canada or america here. when elmer's was on his way to widespread unrest in the carriages capital

disturbances began following a rally in support of a proposal to nationalize the comptroller goldfield the canadian firm that develops and pays more in taxes than any other taxpayer in the country. hundreds. and.

his guys. this. makeshift. not even jewelers can refine gold let alone others only one or two jewelers and one

hundred know how to do it this is fine you need sink to be able to separate gold from other elements like silver and. this is how i do it i'm not gold in a crucible and then add zinc to it one and a half grams of zinc for each gram of gold. as soon as it's melted down i put the mixture in a flask containing acid or the gold then forms in chloroform. refining with zinc is the most hazardous method to gas released is extremely poisonous and for that reason the process is usually done in the open air the acid takes about fifteen to twenty minutes to remove all the impurities picower of the liquid gradually turns turquoise and a brown sediment is clearly visible at the bottom of the flask there it is coral

gold it will turn yellow after i melt it down. the flames work a chemical miracle with brown flakes gradually forming into a small golden nugget. nater nine years ago i would have refined three hundred grams of gold by dividing it into pieces and melting each of them with gold is only a material i am a jeweler and a dental technician. i believe gold means different things to different people i do know that my wife is fond of it yet i make ornaments for her myself. turned out well. mark the end of the season by throwing a modest party for themselves. they've made enough pay for the winter for their youngest son elton back is almost ready and to top it all off they've sold the gold

this means they can afford meat. for. for. money is the problem if you've got to know if you'll be ok that's why we pan for gold sun cows are expensive today you can sell a call for sixty years seventy thousand last year the prices have gone up there was already a lot of snow here in november god knows what happens this year this summer was warm so that means cool winter like it was last year when there was three or four metres of snow luckily we were ready for it. didn't show up

i know earlier he fell out with his father drank a lot of vodka and went off into the mountains is worried. where is old. he's been away for two hours this is brother looking for him i pray to god he doesn't hang himself to. men mind gold wearing and selling it is the exclusive domain of women. gold marketplace is the busiest spot in town. a brisk trade is found here every morning local jewelers can fix a broken ornament and wyatt and if asked they'll also check the quality and standard of gold. is an uzbek he says he's just an ordinary jeweler but his modest appearance and simple looking place are misleading

. is among the most important people in the gold marketplace he plays a large part in turning the gold extract in from faraway mountains into rings and earrings. there are many homemade things around including those from other countries some of them conform to standards others don't. know are checks the jewelry that people bring to him he determines the quality of the metal using several simple procedures. do you want me to check it. if the gold is good and the acid it won't turn it black and if it's homemade well made by hand it might turn black you know yep is turning black now as you can see this one was made by hand but it wasn't done well. but this one is good. it's fourteen karat gold. people trust each other and you always need to check no matter

whether you are from someone you know i will not the number of customers can vary from twenty thirty sometimes fifty. obviously the marketplace is only the tip of the iceberg large scale trading in gold and poultry grams in a market is hidden from public eyes. many know where the gold streaming from. it's headed to neighboring uzbekistan and then on to iran and the arab emirates it's possible that some of those shipments may well have a few of the grounds that his brothers pan from their river of gold. the youngest of the brothers came back from the mountains after going missing the day before he's tired and still drunk without entering his father's house helton

back gets down to the job he knows best panning for gold. i think i'm lucky to be a kurd is. that's good to know that i was born in the chad color region. i live like any other kurd is i don't need anything apart from what i already have . no mentally i don't want my children to do the same job standing in cold water and ruining their health but i'll go on doing it to earn enough money so that in the future my children don't go through the same hardships but i.

thank. you. more news today violence is once again flared up. these are the images the world has been seeing from the streets of canada. china operations are all.

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