VietNamNet Bridge – Besides the gold digging sites on brook areas, gold digging masters have purchased acacia or rubber forests from farmers to fulfill their dream of seeking gold.

The illegal gold digging has caused a headache to the local authorities of the central provinces. While the gold mining problem in Hong Thuy and Hong Van communes of Thua Thien – Hue province has not been settled to the every root yet, the gold miners continue diving on the A A river in Hong Ha commune of A Luoi district to look for gold.

Ho Van Loi, a local resident, pointing to the tens of people diving on the muddy river under the sunshine, said that the people were trying to seek placer gold.

“The gold crumbs may mix with sand in the big rocks. People have to pan sand to find gold. The work is hard, but it brings money,” he said.

A Luoi district’s people have been looking for gold everywhere. However, in the last three months, they have been focusing to look for placer gold on the river-bed areas. The information that gold can be found here has been released by geological engineers, who implemented the project on the Ho Chi Minh route.

Not only professional gold miners, but a lot of people from different communes have flocked to the A A river, hoping that they can find gold which can help them have a new life.

“My wife and I have been panning sand for gold here for the last two months. Sometimes we can earn 200,000-300,000 dong a day. On average, we get 50,000 dong, but sometimes, we found nothing,” said Ho Van Ton, a gold miner.

Ton showed the visitors a bowl which contained small specks of gold. He said that sometimes he could find the pieces of gold which was as big as the rice seed, but this very rarely happens.

The gold mining has been carried out in a large scale in A Luoi district over the last three months. However, this has caused serious consequences. On the two sides of A A, A Sap and Dakrong rivers, one can see the caves which have been pierced with exposed rugged rock-tops

Devastating rubber forests to mine gold

The rubber garden with the area of 1.5 hectares of Ho Van Lan in Thuong Long commune of Thua Thien – Hue province was sold to a gold digging master one month ago.

According to Lan, he and the masters undertook a “verbal agreement” for one year at the price of 90 million dong a month. A lot of deep holes have been dug on the land, a lot of uprooted rubber trees were lying on the ground, some packs of ores were seen on the “land of gold.”

A local resident said that gold miners have been trying to seek gold in every place possible. Some groups of miners are illegally seeking gold at the acacia and rubber gardens. If the local authorities cannot take drastic measures to prevent the illegal diggers, the land may turn chaotic because of the gold mining.

Prior to that, the planted forests of Ho Van Nang and Ho Van Voi in Thuong Long commune were sold to gold miners for 100 million dong. Nearly 100 people were found here at the high gold digging season. People flocked there to look for gold after hearing that there is a big gold mine here containing big gold blocks.

Source: Dai Doan Ket