An illegal gold mining site has been set up in a 2000sq.m forest in Loc Son commune, Phu Loc district, Thua Thien-Hue city province, by thousands of people from different localities.

Over 1,000 gold diggers from many northern and central provinces have flocked to this site. Over the past two weeks, they cut down thousands of pine and acacia trees that were about to be harvested in search of gold.

They set up tents for their stay at the site, disrupting locals’ daily activities and causing scenes of rowdy disorder. They not only deforested the mountain area but also raided many graves there to seek gold.

Le So, a local resident, who had to disinter his relatives’ remains for a reburial elsewhere, said, “If we fail to move the graves today, they will dig them up tomorrow.”

“The diggers have been here for the past 10 days and as news that they have found some gold spread everywhere, an influx of people from other provinces and cities has arrived here to dig up rock and soil for gold,” said Vo Cong Nhon, chairman of the commune People’s Committee.

“We have detained a number of diggers and seized seven motorbikes and many sacks of gold-bearing rocks. We have filled up a lot of illegal gold pits. However, after we leveled those pits in day time, they would create new ones in night time.”

Illegal gold diggers at one of numerous gold pits in Vinh Son hamlet, Loc Son commune, Phu Loc district, Thua Thien-Hue province

However, the commune’s thin police force failed to control thousands of gold diggers, many of whom were too ferocious, Nhon said. “The illegal mining also gives rise to other social evils, such as fighting, drug abuse and prostitution,” Nhon said.

On June 15, a fierce fight broke out among a group of diggers competing with each other in their search for gold. Several of them later had to be taken to the hospital.

The Phu Loc district police rushed to the scene that night to disperse the diggers, but they returned the next morning and continued to climb up the mountain to dig for gold, Nhon said.

They packed gold-containing rock into sacks and then manually carried them down to the mountain foot, where the sacks were loaded on motorbikes or trucks and then transported away, he added.

VietNamNet’s Truong Ha took some photos at the site:

VietNamNet/VNE/Tuoi Tre