Uzbekistan is among the top 10 gold producing countries, with most of the mining done by state-owned companies. After authorities also allowed private mining five years ago, Uzbekistan has experienced a gold rush.
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00:00This is what the gold rush in Uzbekistan looks like.
00:05Dust, rocks and a scorching sun.
00:09Dzamshet checks the quality of the gold-bearing ore
00:13and hopes he'll get lucky today.
00:16It's always different.
00:20Sometimes it's 30 grams, sometimes 100 grams,
00:24and sometimes just 2 grams a day.
00:28The biggest gold nugget we found was 7 grams.
00:34Gold is mined here using traditional methods.
00:37The gold-bearing rock is dumped into a sluice,
00:40washed and then sieved further.
00:42Due to its weight, the gold settles at the bottom.
00:45Around 600 cubic meters of rock are washed here every day.
00:49By the way, the gold-washing machine is handmade.
00:52There are several gold mines like this one,
00:55located about 100 kilometers from the industrial city of Navoi in central Uzbekistan.
01:00Uzbeks, Chinese and Russians work here.
01:04Private gold mining is a rather secretive business.
01:07No one talks openly about mining volumes or profits.
01:11The mine we visited covers an area of 5 hectares.
01:15Uzbek entrepreneurs won it at an auction,
01:18paying $75,000 for a three-year contract.
01:22Mined gold is sold at market prices to state companies or jewelers.
01:27This became possible five years ago,
01:29when Uzbek authorities legalized private gold mining.
01:33Since then, a gold rush has taken hold.
01:36Though people have been looking for gold in this area for over 20 years.
01:42In the past, people used to mine gold by hand.
01:45But now they started working in open pits, and everything is legal.
01:49I've been mining gold since I was a child.
01:51I've always enjoyed it. I work here with pleasure.
01:55However, private miners do not extract as much as the state does.
02:00This is Muruntau, one of the largest gold deposits in the world.
02:05In 2022, more than 50 tons of gold were mined there.
02:10Experts estimate that Muruntau's reserves exceed 4,500 tons of gold.
02:16Uzbekistan produces more than 100 tons of gold annually,
02:20placing it among the top ten gold-producing countries in the world.
02:25In 2023, the country exported $8 billion worth of gold.
02:32However, there is a darker side to Uzbekistan's gold industry, too.
02:36Illegal mining.
02:38The locations of these operations are not public.
02:42People die in the rubble because they dig deep tunnels to keep the mines hidden.
02:55When you're digging, you need electricity for the equipment,
02:58so they use underground generators.
03:06These run on petrol, and exhaust fumes fill the air.
03:12Causing suffocation and death.
03:17While there are profits from illegal mining, there are also many deaths.
03:24And no one is held accountable.
03:28But let's return to the gold mine near the village of Saikidshau.
03:32Dzamshed drives the ore to be washed.
03:35He manages to unload about 50 truckloads every shift.
03:39Every ten days, he visits his family in Samarkand.
03:43Meanwhile, the sun sets over the mine, but gold mining continues.
03:48It goes on through the night.