Chislat Otčilov spreads a grayish mixture of sand and stones with one hand, which is washed by a trickle of water, and carefully examines the appearance of the shiny flakes. It is about gold, Uzbekistan’s key metal, which the Central Asian country is abundant in. Finally, a nugget the size of a grain of rice appears on Otčilov’s rice pan.
“Not bad, although I once found a boulder that weighed seven grams. That’s my record“says a 25-year-old man who was met by an AFP reporter in the steppe near the village of Sojkechar in southwestern Uzbekistan.
A short distance away, another gold digger, 28-year-old Sardor Mardijev, toils behind the wheel of his digger in twelve-hour shifts six days a week. This is happening in the vast Navoi area, which is larger than thirty European countries, including Portugal.
Gold mining used to be the exclusive privilege of huge state-owned mining companies, but now individuals are also allowed to search for gold. Uzbekistan was the world’s tenth largest producer of gold last year (110.8 tonnes) and second largest seller (25 tonnes) through its central bank.
However, these numbers are far from satisfying President Shavkat Mirziyoyev, who presents himself as a reformer eager to develop the still largely centralized economy and open up his country after years of isolation. This gradual liberalization has not yet affected the political scene, which is still closed to change.
Only a fifth of Uzbekistan’s subsoil has been explored so far, with the country’s leader ordering a 50 percent increase in gold production by 2030 and selling ingots weighing up to a kilogram in hopes of attracting more tourists.
After the permission granted to individuals, Zochid Khudaberdiyev, like hundreds of other entrepreneurs, wanted to try his luck. In order to participate in this gold rush, he purchased land rights at auction for three years.
“Before 2019, we weren’t allowed to look for gold. Some did, but they risked their lives, it was dangerous,” says 30-year-old Khudaberdiyev, who has Chinese and Kazakh competitors in the neighborhood. If the leased part did not provide enough gold, he would probably try a little further.
Behind him are full trucks, excavators and loaders, moving tons of soil for hundreds of meters, which brings “an average of 12 to 15 grams of gold per day“, as Chudabardiyev says, who at the same time checks the price of gold with one eye on his mobile phone. In mid-March, it was almost $2,200 (about CZK 51,347) per ounce, which is a record high.”The government gave us the opportunity to search for gold to give people jobs,” he continues, giving his young employees Chislat Ochilov and Sardor Mardijev as an example. Because in a country where a fifth of the working population is forced to emigrate for a living, primarily to Russia, the gold sector offers unexpected prospects.
“We employ local people. Chislat was previously unemployed and Sardor worked on a farm. Now they earn an average of three to four million sums per month (about 5560 to 7590 CZK),” explains Khudaberdayev. It’s a decent salary in the region.
Once the gold is mined, businessmen are not allowed to keep it, but must hand everything over to the central bank, which itself sells the gold on the world market for dollars. This influx of currency is crucial to Uzbekistan’s growing economy, especially since the local currency is among the weakest in the world.
But in the village of Sojkečar, where agriculture remains a vital industry, the buzz about gold isn’t just making people happy. “Prospectors dig where we grazed cattle” says Erkin Karshiyev, who is one of the leading landowners in the district about 500 kilometers southwest of the capital, Tashkent.
“Look, the previous ones left and left everything” the 60-year-old complains disappointedly, pointing to pits in the ground about ten meters deep. He is very worried that the cattle will not fall into the pits. Although he has sent many complaints to the authorities, the problem remains unresolved. “We only want one thing from the gold diggers,” says the farmer, “to fill up the pits before they leave.“
Gold price development (1-hour chart – H1):
Source: Reuters, ČTK, MT4
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