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 and the same we had no work so i wanted to at least gather some gold. that there were a large nuggets in the river then but now there is little gold left to get someone should 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 the whole day long without stop . usually two people what 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 all the water brings gold from the mountain top of the gold is heavy so it gets stuck at the 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. stairs intensely hoping to see tiny flakes of the precious metal in the sand. a little bit farther up the river behind the pink world we once had and 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 the dream i panned a lot of gold all. 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 don't miss the. searching for gold isn't a bad thing the clean 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 wealth is now limited to his parents yard just like elton dick he's a father of two he also used to pan rivers for gold. two years ago to lay bricks leg was amputated spending so much time in the icy mountain waters gave him a chimera 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 all 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 is very on klondike 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 panners family he first met a year ago. twenty grams then. much more modest

when the youngest son killed took his life the best in the family had been lost when the started a gram of gold could be sold for a thousand. that's around twenty dollars now the prices. 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 painting 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 will 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. parents versus social workers duckett nabby last stop in claiming that damn good many children have become cries used to fight full why does the law or threaten

families of a social for if you see me in a female they have a right comparable minimal faithing but they have any kind of suspicion about the will be more fuel for children are often just better at bringing up kids than their own mom and dad. from what we have an industry that is so. concentrated on the other for trade children.

if.

more news today. again flared up if these are the images the world has been seeing from the streets of canada. china operations are the day. only leaves his farm stand 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.

yeah. good to see you. 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 it appears all is quiet around here everybody is talking about the winter most likely it will be a bitter cold january temperatures sometimes drop to thirty six thirty seven degrees below zero. point. 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 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 ask . 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 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 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 intel still 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 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 prospects in 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 been two years and it all petered out eventually. but. we're not in canada or america here we're in a.z. you know. when elma's 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 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 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 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. 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.

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 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. else and back didn't show up and 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 is his 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 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 workplace are misleading. is among the most important people in the gold marketplace he plays

a large part in turning the gold extracted from far away 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 if it's homemade or made by hand it might turn black you know yep it's 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 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. knew 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 still drunk without injuring his father's house elton 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 on 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.

we have. groups. also. you know for. me when i was. you can't win and you certainly can't do it through the barrel of a gun only effective social change you can be the afghans themselves

ask again many women. because. it's a position and. 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. it was not the military army. contract with the unit of the huge contract powerful it was not the operation to secure and rebuild the country caliber company . contracts work in iraq. it was the campaign for making billions of dollars polymer. reasonable. forty bills. one

billion dollars a year. first sale. for profiteers cannot cheat. the great russian warriors. prevailing over hazards and asperity. to reenact an epic parade through paris you've. come a complete. with people's admiration for two hundred. all good love oh. good good. to me soon which brightened. soon from finance to the pressure inside.

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