• A miner with pure gold wrapped in a cigarette paper ready to sell.
  • Artisanal gold miners at work in Kanga-Isine in Mongbwalu Ituri province Eastern Congo.
  • Mongbwalu in Eastern Congo is home to one of the world\'s richest gold fields yet the people live in extreme poverty, working by hand and have endured years of conflict.<br/>
  • The majority of the town\'s men are forced to mine because it\'s the only way to earn enough to afford the high prices in Mongbwalu. <br/><br/>
  • Teams of artisanal gold miners toil in treacherous conditions in the mud. The work is difficult & dangerous and almost impossible during the rainy season.
  • They have to dig on average one tonne of earth and rock to find just one gramme of gold worth $15. They work from 7am to nightfall at least 6 days a week.
  • Kanga-Usine mine in Mongbwalu remains one of the richest gold fields in Africa.
  • Income is unpredictable as it depends on the amount of gold they find each day.
  • Every shop in Mongbwalu town acts as a gold trader who then sell it onto middle men in Bunia. From there it is smuggled out of the country, usually to Uganda.
  • The value of the gold substantially increases once it reachers the trading town of Bunia.
  • An estimated $60 million worth of Congolese gold was smuggled out of Congo in 2003 from neighbouring Uganda. The miners of Mongbwalu see no benefit from these huge profits.
  • A miner carries raw quartz rock mined from Makala mine in Mongbwalu to the village of Sayo were gold is extracted by crushing and filtering the rock.
  • Woman porters carry over 30kg of the raw quartz rock mined from Makala mine to the village of Sayo where gold is extracted by crushing and filtering the rock. They are paid $1 a journey.
  • A young miner returns home with his bag of quartz. Children are often used as porters and work to pay for school fees.
  • Children in Mongbwalu Primary School. Many children cannot afford the $1 a month fee.
  • With just one doctor, Mongbwalu referal hospital is the only public medical care for over 113,000 patients. Staff are not paid by the Government, only what little people can afford.
  • Roads in and out of Monbwlau are almost non existant. These traders travelled over 50km with their goods strapped to a bike to Mongbwalu market. They may earn $3 for their goods.
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