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David Gray / Reuters
A small-scale miner digs a hole searching for gold on a small hill overlooking grasslands in rural Mongolia on April 4, 2012. Pictures made available on April 19.
David Gray / Reuters
Reuters reports — In a hot, concrete hut filled with acetylene fumes, an elderly Mongolian miner struggles to contain her excitement as she plucks a sizzling inch-long nugget of gold from a grubby cooling pot and raises it to the light.
65-year-old Khorloo is a member of a new Mongol horde of at least 60,000 herders, farmers and urban unemployed trying to extract the riches buried in the vast steppe with metal detectors, shovels and home-made smelters.
See more of photographer David Gray's work from Mongolia on PhotoBlog
In the last five years, dwindling legal gold supplies and a spike in black market demand from China have made work much more lucrative for Mongolia's "ninja miners" - so named because of the large green pans carried on their backs that look like turtle shells. For thousands of dirt-poor herders, the soaring prices alone are enough to justify years of harassment, abuse and hard labor. Read the full story.
David Gray / Reuters
A miner pours water into a crushing machine in an attempt to siphon gold at a processing plant around 100 km (62 miles) north of Ulan Bator.
David Gray / Reuters
A miner holds gold that was melted together at a processing plant.
David Gray / Reuters
A miner removes rocks from a hole he dug to search for gold.
Sukhbaataryn Batbold, Mongolia's Prime Minister, talks about the country's mineral riches in a 2010 interview.
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The biggest surprise from this story - Mongolians know who the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles are!
anyone else sad they didn't even have a photo of this "ninja"-ness?
Genghis lives!
Next we'll be hearing about all the deaths from the holes they don't fill back up.
More likely they'll be dropping dead of poisoning from the chemicals used to extract the gold, like happens in South America.
Still trying to determine if this is the fault of Bush or Obama..jk
Doing this it would be a matter of time until they discover the grave of the genghis Khan and his vast treasure. Prophesy says that when that happens the Khan will return and not only conquer the world but as his title says, the Entire universe. I await that moment, for I am a 24th great grand son of Temijun, the Genghis Khan. Who can? Genghis Khan!
Ron
That is exactly what I was thinking. Wouldn't that be something? Even just a cache from that period. Or the scene of a village or battle. It's really not that far fetched.
my first thought too when I saw the pic
Wow, what a change from traditional Mongolian beliefs, which included a taboo against puncturing the Earth. That's why Yurts aren't staked down.
They really must be desperate.
Obviously gangsters. You can tell because the thugs are wearing a HOODIES.