Jiro Ose

Congo: Cursed Gold

The DRC’s rich resources provide easy ways to finance the conflict and the rebels had long been successful in setting up financial administrative bodies in their controlled areas, especially with regards to trading with Rwanda and Uganda.

Eric Tanguda doesn't remember his age. He comes to this artisan goldmine in Montgbawalu, Ituri district in the eastern part of Democratic Republic of Congo, to help his family to make ends meet. The troubled and war-torn northeastern region of the country is rich in gold.
   
Gaping hole at an artisan goldmine in Montgbawalu. In order to make ends meet, young and old spend all day digging for a few ounce of gold without any help from modern machinery. Most of the gold corrected is sold across the border in Uganda.
   
Hardly any machineries are used to extract the gold in most mines in DR Congo.
     
  
Congolese men takes a break from hard labor at an artisan gold mine in Montgbawalu. One man said people who work in the mines die young, too young.
  
Many working at the mines in Ituri are young boys and children.
   
On hands and knees, muds and rocks are collected at the mines.
     
  
Miners try to wash off the mud to find their fortune in an old fashion in Iga-Barriere in Ituri.
   
A tiny piece of gold found at an artisan gold mine in Montgbawalu. A find like this is far and in between. Most workers trade their labor for a few buckets of mud from the mines, hoping to find enough grains to feed their families.
   
Fruit of labor is being measured by small coins and match sticks at a busy gold market in Iga-Barriere in Ituri.
     
  
Fruit of labor is being measured by small coins and match sticks at a busy gold market in Iga-Barriere in Ituri.
   
Man hunting for gold in Iga-Barriere became the part of the landscape of Ituri.
   
A child digs into the red earth at a gold mine in Montgbawalu. Children, many are war orphans, with no alternatives, waste their childhood and lives away in the mines.