Lesson 1: Close-up of "gold thieves"

(Baonghean) -Despite many raids and expulsions, every dry season, the "gold bandits" in Tuong Duong rise again. This year is no exception, since February, "gold bandits" have been rampant in many communes and villages...

To get a closer look at the illegal gold mining situation, we sought help from H - a veteran Northerner who is familiar with the Tuong Duong area. Before leaving, H reminded us: Don't be careless or it will be very troublesome. And, in the role of people looking for gold mining sites, we saw and heard many stories...







"Gold thieves" are mining along the Huoi Nguyen river.

On March 26, we followed along Huoi Nguyen stream in Yen Thang commune to look for "gold thieves". Huoi Nguyen stream runs parallel to Highway 748 for about 25 km (from Huoi Nguyen bridge to Xieng Lip bridge), passing through Canh village, Luom village, Trung Thang village... In this area, there is no place without illegal gold mining groups, so the Huoi Nguyen stream is full of red mud, both banks are broken by large caves, the middle of the stream is full of mounds. Not only that, many hillsides have been hollowed out, with their roots exposed because of the digging by "gold thieves".

In this area, the "gold thieves" are mostly Yen Thang people, a few are from Thai Nguyen province or Ky Son district. We approached a group of people mining in Luom village. This group is divided into two groups, one group consists of men of all ages, using Dong Phong generators attached to large suction pipes that go deep into the hole, sucking soil, rocks and water into a trough to settle and collect gold. The other group consists only of women, they use crowbars and small hoes to dig large holes along the banks of the stream, then crawl in to collect soil and rocks, carry them out to the stream and use conical wooden troughs to sift them. Although H is very fluent in Thai, almost none of the men in the group are willing to talk to us. Occasionally, they stop working, sullenly giving us unfriendly looks. Unlike the group of men, when H introduced herself as a native of Dai Tu - Thai Nguyen, and was looking for a place to do business, immediately, a middle-aged woman from Luom village named Hoa agreed to help. According to Ms. Hoa, almost every place in Yen Thang commune already had an owner. If you want to do business here, you have to buy hilly land from the people for about 35 million VND per plot, but if you don't have experience, you will buy the wrong place without gold. Ms. Hoa enticed:

- There is a place that is very easy to work, you can earn 1 tael a day, if you agree to let my husband join and divide the shares fairly, I will take him there.

- Where? Does it cost anything?

- There must be a fee for the village management board, then they will do other procedures. But you must meet my conditions before I can take you. Otherwise, strangers are very deceitful...

To let H talk to Mrs. Hoa, I followed a woman in her 30s to the stream bank to watch her pan for gold. After chatting with her, she said that manual mining only costs effort and no fee, while mining by machine requires each Yen Thang machine to pay the commune 1.5 million VND/month and the village 500,000 VND/month, if people from other places come, it will be more...



"Gold thieves" exploit at Khe Puong.

Leaving Yen Thang commune, on March 27, we arrived at Khe Ngan and Khe Puong in Yen Na and Yen Hoa communes. According to H, in the past, on both sides of Khe Ngan and Khe Puong, the rice fields of the people were lush green, but since 2009, gold mining companies have brought gold mining ships to flatten this place. Indeed, we do not know what this place was like before, but now the entire Khe Ngan and Khe Puong, tens of kilometers long, is a desolate area, full of holes, ponds and bumpy rocks. Along Khe Ngan and Khe Puong, there are many Dong Phong generators and gold chutes, but only 5-6 generators are operating. Stopping by the camp of a group of "gold thieves" from Bon village (Yen Na commune), they looked at us with suspicion and said they were taking a day off because of a wedding of the villagers. After a while of "getting acquainted", H said: We are looking to buy a land to make gold, if you know, please introduce us. A "gold thief" named Ti said that the land already has owners, however, it is still possible to negotiate to buy back the land from the people. And according to Ti, Mr. H - the head of Bon village is the person who can help us.

- Is there a fee?

- Yes. We are Yen Na people, so we pay the commune 3 million VND/month.

And then he said: We have to take a break because the commune officials said the district is coming down to inspect.

Who told you that? Ti smiled and shook his head...

Also on March 27, we stopped at a restaurant in Yen Hoa commune. When hearing H speaking with a Northern accent, a group of young men proactively invited us to drink and asked directly if we wanted to find a gold mine? Should we book a large ship or just mine small-scale?... After H clearly stated his intention, the group of young men said that if they had come a few years ago, it would have been easy to "find", but now it was a bit difficult because Ngan stream had been dug up many times. However, they revealed that if we wanted to make gold in Yen Hoa, there were still many places and we should meet a commune leader named S... We asked the restaurant owner if it was difficult to meet Mr. S. The female restaurant owner said: It's not difficult, if people can meet Mr. S to discuss the matter, you guys can also meet him... Indeed, in Yen Hoa commune, "gold bandits" do not only appear in Ngan stream area. In Yen Huong village - a remote village of Yen Hoa - the sound of Dong Phong engines of "gold bandits" is also heard...



"Gold thieves" exploit in Yen Huong village.

I thought that "gold thieves" in Yen Thang, Yen Hoa, Yen Na were terrible, but H said that the Cha Ha stream area through Huoi Phai, Cha Lum, Na Cang villages... in Yen Tinh commune is the real hot spot of "gold thieves". Early in the morning of March 28, we went to Cha Ha stream, where Xieng Nua village (Yen Na commune) and Vang Cuom village (Yen Tinh commune) meet. Under the stream and in the fields on the high mountains, there are many groups of "gold thieves" openly mining. Under the stream, "gold thieves" use excavators to turn the stream into large holes and then use water hoses to suck up the soil and rocks to pan for gold. On the fields on the high hills, "gold thieves" use large engines to pull water from the stream to pan for gold... Stopping at a tea shop in Vang Cuom village, the shop owner (wife of the former Party Secretary of Vang Cuom village) said that if you want to mine gold, you have to meet the village management board, because the villagers agree to give the right to "grant a license" to anyone who wants to mine. "Here, in addition to the groups of the villagers, there is also a group of Thai Nguyen people who are mining gold on the fields, they pay the village 6 million VND/month..." - the shop owner said.



"Gold thieves" exploit at Cha Ha stream.





Some mining teams of Hop Vinh Joint Stock Company are mining in the hills of Yen Tinh commune.

Following Cha Ha stream on the dirt road through Huu Khuong, through Vang Cuom, Cap Chang, Pa Ty, Pa Khom, Huoi Pai, Cha Lum, Na Cang villages... everywhere we witnessed illegal gold mining. Typically, in Na Cang 1 village, in Pieng Pung valley, many groups equipped with dozens of machines, water cannons to mine in the stream bed and garden land, village land. Not only that, in these areas, companies licensed by the Provincial People's Committee to mine also brought equipment such as gold mining boats, hydraulic excavators, large pans... to mine gold on a large scale in hilly areas... After learning, they spent money to buy upland land from the people, paying monthly to the village for mining. We approached T - a relative of the head of Huoi Pai village, according to him, in Yen Tinh, people organizing gold mining is just like a normal business. "I have a piece of land that definitely has gold. If you join, I will take you away..." - T said.

(continued)

Nhat Lan