Photo Gallery The Desperate Hunt for Gold
Gold diggers at work in an open mine near the Revue River. During the day, they crawl across the loamy ground, digging with their bare hands. A few have spades and pickaxes. Many begin work at four in the morning.
The prospectors sell whatever they find to Mozambican dealers for the equivalent of about $20 (13) per gram. The dealers, in turn, collect $27 (17) in Manica, only 15 kilometers (9 miles) away. The buyers in Manica export the still slightly soiled gold to other countries, a practice that is also illegal. It eventually ends up in the major markets in London, New York and Zurich: shiny, refined and expensive.
Thousands of desperate people have come to the region to seek their fortune.
The prospectors sometimes dig shafts that are 10 to 20 meters (33 to 66 feet) deep and connected by tunnels. Once a hole has been exploited, it is simply left open. This leads to recurring mudslides during the rainy season, sometimes burying prospectors.
The work starts before sunrise. Nightfall brings welcome cooler temperatures to the foothills of the Chimanimani Mountains in western Mozambique. But it also brings the malaria-carrying Anopheles mosquito from the nearby swamps.
Richard Tutsi from Bulawayo in Zimbabwe is digging for gold eight meters below ground. The tunnels sometimes collapse, killing miners.
The Mozambican authorities are becoming increasingly concerned because the gold-bearing earth is washed in the rivers, causing them to silt up. As a result drinking water is already becoming scarce in the region.
SPIEGEL correspondent Thilo Thielke interviewing Zimbabwean gold digger Obet Mujona.
