Looking up the valley at an active gold mining site in Northern Mongolia, a scant 20km from the Russian border. The checkerboard of holes that you see have been cut into the ice of a frozen river. The trees from the surrounding slope are then cut down and sawn into shorter logs. At the bottom of these holes, which might drop 20+ feet a bonfire is stoked and the smoke rises into the air. The fires are needed to thaw the earth so that the gold might be prised from the rock and riverbed. The miners have come from all over the country to seek their fortune in a landscape out of Jack London's
The expedition's reindeer train on day two of the three day journey into the illegal gold mining camp in the Northern reaches of Mongolia, 20km from the Russian border. This pass between the mountains stretched for close to 30km and took us as high as 3000m. The reindeer belonged to the Tsaatan, a nomadic reindeer people, who still ride their steeds in contrast to the Sami of Northern Scandinavia who do not. The mining is happening in the heartland of the Tsaatan, though they are in some complicit in their own land's destruction because they act as a taxi service to the camp - ferrying in supplies at a profit.
A Ninja Miner with a metal detector poses for a portrait on a frozen river at an illegal gold mine in Mongolia's frontier region with Siberia. The term 'ninja miner' refers to green basin that the miners use to pan for gold - when slung over their backs it makes them look like the cartoon characters Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. The metal dectectors are too expensive for any one miner to purchase, so they are rented out for a percentage of the gold that is found.
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Looking up the valley at an active gold mining site in Northern Mongolia, a scant 20km from the Russian border. The checkerboard of holes that you see have been cut into the ice of a frozen river. The trees from the surrounding slope are then cut down and sawn into shorter logs. At the bottom of these holes, which might drop 20+ feet a bonfire is stoked and the smoke rises into the air. The fires are needed to thaw the earth so that the gold might be prised from the rock and riverbed. The miners have come from all over the country to seek their fortune in a landscape out of Jack London's
Miners work to bring a bucket to the surface of an artisanal gold mine in Northern Mongolia. Located in a National Forest the miners operate illegal and wage a war against the forest - sawing down trees to feed the furnace that thaws the earth. I am [ed note: at the time, I am not sure if this has changed] the only foreigner to have ever visited the camp.
A young Mongolian couple dressed in traditional garb at an illegal gold mining camp ('Ninja Mining') in Khovsgol Province, Mongolia. Ninja Mining is the act of illegal gold mining, and the terminology is specific to Mongolia. It is a reference to the basins that the miners use to pan for gold - when slung over their backs they look like the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
Mongolian 'ninja miners' work to extract gold from the slurry of a frozen landscape in the extreme north of the country by the Russian border. The miners come by their 'ninja' moniker by dint of their ever-present green panning basins. When slung over their backs they resemble Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. The miners have come from all over the country to seek their fortune in a landscape out of Jack London's
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