Gold diggers in Lampang
There are plenty of “gold diggers” (between quotation marks). Thailand, will you. say. Countless foreigners come to Thailand with (a little) money to try to make a fortune here.
But gold prospecting has become a bit of a reality in Lampang in the north of Thailand. Been a long time now by now stir the Wang River has almost dried up and alluvial gold deposits from the nearby mountains have been found in the river bed. The remains have ended up in the river due to erosion.
Many villagers are already busy sifting water and soil in the river in order to extract the gold from the river. In a news report from MCOT it was already speculative that one could earn as little as 10.000 Baht per day, because a gold trader readily pays for this 98% pure gold.
The majority of the gold seekers are therefore local farmers, but townspeople have also been seen trying their luck in this way. The same news item stated that this news is seen as a bright spot for the local population after all the misery of the floods and now again a shortage of water.
The gold, which was mainly found in the Wang Nuea area, has now been tested by the Lampang Mineral Resources Office. mr. Adul Jaitabur, a geologist from this bureau, says that the gold occurs naturally in a hill between the sub-districts of Wang Keaw and Tung Hua in Wang Nuea district in Lampang province and the adjacent Ban Tom district in Phayao province. He further said that the gold found comes from a hydrothermal vein, which is the crystallization of minerals from hot water and quartz.
Due to a lack of professional tools, the prospectors use simple sieve pans to find the gold in the river over a length of several kilometers. The geologist confirms that the gold found is of a high grade (98% pure) and with a bit of luck, a finder can generate additional income of up to 10.000 Baht per day. Considering that the average income in that province is around 50.000 Baht per year, it is not surprising that a real “gold rush” has developed among the local farmers and other residents.
Perhaps also something for that foreign "gold digger", who has not succeeded in getting rich in any other way.
You don't only find gold in Thailand. And in Thailand there were also silver mines.
In what used to be Laos but is now Cambodia, explorers saw gold mining as far back as the 19th century; mud was sieved for this purpose in order to be able to extract small amounts of no more than a few grams per day.
Thailand also has iron ore and antimony. However, large-scale extraction appears to give rise to environmental concerns and one of the last major mines will soon be closed by government order.