Making a living in the heart of the "underworld"
(Baonghean) - Despite a series of accidents that have taken the lives of many people, dozens of households in Chau Hong commune (Quy Hop, Nghe An) still consider the job of collecting ore in the mountains as their main job.
Lan Toong "Bee's Nest"
In mid-April, less than a month after the mine collapse that killed three people, we returned to Lan Toong Mountain (Chau Hong Commune, Quy Hop). As soon as we reached the top of the commune, Lan Toong Mountain appeared before our eyes, with its festering, jagged scars. The road leading to the top of the mountain was steep, marked with fresh wheel marks of the local people collecting ore.
Lan Toong is a mountain located on the border between Chau Hong and Chau Thanh communes. After many years of tin mining, this mountain now looks like a honeycomb, with many holes left by businesses. From these holes leading deep into the mountain is a complex system of tunnels, stretching for dozens of kilometers. Strangers entering here can easily get lost if they are not focused.
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| Lan Toong Mountain, where sludge from tin mining enterprises is piled up. |
“The inside of the mountain is now almost hollow. It could collapse at any time, it’s very dangerous. But we have to do it,” said Truong Van Hien (30 years old, Chao village, Chau Hong commune). His house is at the foot of Lan Toong mountain. When he was less than 10 years old, Hien carried a hammer and followed adults up here to collect tin ore. Hien said that in those days, businesses had not yet arrived, there was still a lot of ore, so people here just had to carry a hammer along the streams to mine. Thanks to that job, he had money to help his younger siblings go to school.
Mr. Hien never thought that this very place would take the life of his young wife, Sam Thi Hao, leaving behind two small children. Ms. Hao was one of three victims killed in the tunnel collapse on Lan Toong Mountain on March 13.
That day, like dozens of other households here, Mr. Hien and his wife rode their old motorbike up the mountain. It was their first working day of the year.
“After Tet, we took a break. Seeing that it was a beautiful day, the people here went to work that day just to “get a day” for the new year. Unexpectedly, that was also the last trip for my wife and the neighbors,” Mr. Hien said sadly.
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| The ore miners' carts blocked the tunnel. |
Nearly 10 people used crowbars to lift the rock a little to pull Ms. Hao out.
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| The inside of the mountain is now hollowed out and the support piles have collapsed. |
Groping in the dark
After about an hour of walking, we were near the top of the mountain. Up here, it was not difficult to find tunnels abandoned by businesses, leading deep into the mountain.
Breaking into one of them, after only a few meters, darkness fell. Going about 300 meters deeper, we came across dozens of old motorbikes of the ore scavengers parked on the wall of the tunnel.
We were sure that there were many people working in here, but it took us almost an hour of groping in the dark to reach them. At this time, dozens of people were busy chiseling in a fairly large space, each wearing a small flashlight on their head.
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| A system of intricate nooks and crannies |
It took us quite a while of talking into the tunnels before we could convince one of the women to come out and talk. “The company has abandoned this tunnel and is no longer using it. We are just picking it up,” the woman said as she stepped out of the darkness to explain.
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| It took a long time for Ms. Thanh to come out and talk. |
Their work usually starts at 9am and they will go down the mountain at dusk. Lunch and personal hygiene of the ore scavengers all take place in this dark tunnel. Water for daily use is collected drop by drop from the crevices of the rocks.
“I’m really scared. But I don’t know what else to do. I’m used to working in the dark all day,” she said. Around Lan Toong Mountain, there are still many companies specializing in tin mining. When asked “why don’t you work for the company?”, Ms. Thanh said that the company usually requires you to work early and at regular hours. She and many people here cannot stand such discipline.
Most of the tin in these tunnels has been collected by the company, leaving only small pieces hidden inside the large rocks on the tunnel walls. The scavengers will use flashlights to shine into the tunnels, and only then will the workers be able to tell which is normal rock and which is tin.
They will then use hammers and chisels to chisel, if they are not careful or hit existing cracks, the tunnel will collapse at any time.
Meanwhile, due to long-term abandonment, the wooden support piles in the tunnel have also rotted, many broken piles lying around. At the bottom of this mountain, work accidents are always a danger.
Discussing this issue, Mr. Luong Van Long - Chairman of Chau Hong Commune People's Committee said that people who collect ore on Lan Toong mountain mainly belong to Chao village, Huong village... The local government has done everything to propagate and call on people not to come here to work but to no avail. In Chao village, almost every house owns at least one old motorbike - a means for people to go up the mountain to collect ore.
“We also regularly organize raids and chase them away. But when we see them working, we just remind them to go home. However, the next day they come back to the mountain,” Mr. Long said, adding that the most feasible solution now is to collapse the tunnels left behind by the mining company on Lan Toong mountain.
