i. was our father. is the head of our family. our parents have five daughters and four sons they are. chin our elmira an hour to an hour. and coach emberg journey back. and. my brother a kill me is go on a is not with us anymore. back is thirty two his name

means golden in the car good language as the youngest son in the run vehicle family of gold mine as tradition demands that he must live in his parents' house but only a year ago that was his younger brother's responsibility he died this spring hill went up into the mountains and hanged himself no one knows why they really talk about akio now he's remembered only in their prayer as committing suicide is considered a sin and brings shame on a family but they have no time to mourn winter is coming so they must pan for gold before the rivers freeze over. gold miners work by the riverside. walk over to them and then make a purchase. whenever i can i exchange for food and.

has taken this road from his home city of osh in southern cargoes turn to the remote chat cul district many times the journey is long difficult and can be dangerous. i've covered the road for most all come down to the valley now compared to america this is like kurdistan's alaska people don't come here unless they really have to. and delmas certainly does have to he knows his efforts will pay off because an indian summer is the best time to buy the precious metal so mine is a preparing for the coming winter they'll need money for food clothing and vodka. i simply know this area in these people. this time of year the sheep and goats return from the past just the rivers in those fields are the richest in gold. and people have bike down hill. by then they usually have about ten to fifteen grams

each so i buy a lot of the time. about fifteen years ago geologist arrived here the senior geologist name was patrol rich and they discovered gold here and first the police banned us from banning but we went to the local authorities and asked for their permission on the same we had no work so i wanted to at least gather some gold. that there were a large not gets in the river then but now there is little gold left to get someone can go high in the mountains.

we started eight or ten am and finish at four or five pm. on some days the time passes by extremely quickly as you are panning gold a whole day long without stop. usually two people would together in black pants 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 tops gold is heavy so it gets stuck at river bandits that's where we search for it. this is what we call

timid and ironstone 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 sifted on an ordinary come at every particle of gold gets stuck in the indentations. step is intensely hoping to see tiny flakes of the precious metal in the sand. a little bit farther up the river behind pink world we want to turn fourteen grams in just a couple of hours. but that was long ago it was a great joy but we still panning then and went home to celebrate. every morning i

ask 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 night 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. in. the water in the golden river is incredibly cold pending can take up to six hours a day. and his brothers have to work neat high in 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 gold and being a guest worker in russia. to live because weld is now limited to his parents yard just like alphabetic 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 child coal

region but in reality there are many more local authorities are aware of the 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 they don't do that because they have good lives. here in kurdistan as varian 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 immaterial to me many choose golden teeth to make them more beautiful basically having gold in your mouth is very healthy it helps digestion.

with the head of the gold palace family he first met. twenty grams then. much more modest. life the best in the family had been lost when they started a gram of gold could be sold for a thousand. that's around twenty dollars now the price is. 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 dig out is taken to the river where it is broken down by the water this new sand is them panned for. unfortunately while digging there is always the threat of being killed in a. big 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. you know how sometimes you see a story and it seems so you think you understand it and then you glimpse something else you hear or see some other part of it and realize everything you thought you don't know i'm tom harkin welcome to the big picture. wealthy british style. that's not on.

the. market why not. find out what's really happening to the global economy with max cons or for a no holds barred look at the global financial headlines tune in to kaiser report on our. own coming to the. good of the world pass you by as the best and brightest take moyes gather in moscow some came to work while others came to play get up close and personal with devices that recreate masterpieces and scan russian treasures for insight and from space to keep us safe from oil spills and forest fires unleash your inner gadget geek as i see me just search for the next big thing in the computer world and russia's own giants of numerous goodies going to take the fight straight to their home as it is

known to come here on a long sheet we've got the future of covering. the news a secret laboratory to mccurdy was able to build a new most sophisticated robot which on fortunately doesn't give a darn about anything tunes mission to teach music creation why. should care about humans. this is why you should care only. because only leaves his farm stead a couple of times a year today is one of those exciting moments the head of the family 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 the 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 appears all is quiet around here 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. or.

who buys up gold he's been in the business for almost ten years although strictly speaking it's not entirely legal but elmer's no longer worries about his safety he's already made friends with some local policemen and competitors. 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. can you tell me the way to ask us house ask us house. turn right. thank you. elmer's is just in time as us care is preparing for a great first of 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 ground occasion and of course gold

. they have 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 industrial methods in which are damaging the environment my son might end up asking me why we did nothing to prevent this it's 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 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 troubled times but neither side resorted to fighting fortunately. it was never been two years and it all petered out eventually. but. we're not in canada or america here we're in asia you know. when elm us was on his way to widespread unrest flared up in the carriages capital

disturbances began following a rally in support of a proposal to nationalize the continent goldfield the canadian found it developed and pays more in taxes than any other taxpayer in the country. hundreds. and.

that his. business here. his guys. this. makeshift. not even jewelers can refine gold let alone others only one or two jewelers in

a 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 i want to have 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 gold then forms in chloroform. refining with zinc is the most hazardous method the 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 the color 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. neater 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. 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 dinner. that. 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 cars are expensive today you can sell a car 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. else and back 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. whereas old. he's been away for two hours this is brother looking for him i pray to god he doesn't hang himself to. in mine gold and selling it is the exclusive domain of women. gold market place is the busiest spot in town. a brisk trade is found here every morning local jewelers can fix a broken ornament and why it but 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 workplace 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. or 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 yabbies 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 ground with 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 that i am.

please speak to language. programs in documentaries in arabic it's. the teaching from the will talks books of the r.p. interviews intriguing story to tell you. in trying. to find out more visit our big teeth don't call.

me up a war horse give him a note so we have. groups. whose whose also argues in the right enough to my mind it was like many of them out h. it wasn't course the smadi when i was fifteen yes you can liberate there when you certainly can't do it through the barrel of a gun only effective social changes can be the afghans themselves afghan men and women we believe are going to stand up to the cross. the patient it's up to the shop and get it construction up and stop 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.