Chinese strike gold in remote, poor province

Press, 24 July 1986, Page 37

Chinese strike gold in remote, poor province

NZPA-Reuter Peking About 6000 families have struck it rich in a gold rush in part of China’s poorest province, the Xinhua News Agency said. It said more than 10,000 farmers and herdsmen had rushed to a remote river valley in north-west Gansu province during the last two years to try their luck at gold prospecting. The agency said one digger made ’more than $22,560 last

year, and 30 people working with him in the same pit each made more than $5640 — huge fortunes by the standards of Chinese peasants. The report said more than 300 shops, including repair shops, restaurants, and a cinema, had been set up amid rows of miners’ tents at the entrance to the 15km river valley west of Qilian mountain in Tianzhu county. The agency said .many who went to the’ gold

fields were farm workers.

It said the local government had set up offices in the provincial capital of Lanzhou to help the peasants with their money and provide information on panning and safety.

It quoted one official as saying that the gold rush had coincided with an easing of official restrictions on private panning, but the • report did not elaborate on the procedure for selling gold.