Afghanistan's Gem Hunters | Afghan Scene Magazine - Asia-Africa ...

sceneAfghan Scene December 2009 sceneAfghan Scene December 2009CHAI TIME: A team of miners enjoy a well deserved break after hours under ground | Jason P HoweGEM RUSH: Men hunting for emeralds in the high Panjshir | Jason P HoweThe journey had started three hours earlierin the village of Kheng. It was the kind ofplace that seemed strange even by Afghanstandards.Most of the shops were a neat row ofshipping containers. And almost everyoneseemed to have slips of white paper theywould unwrap for you to reveal emeralds.The stones weren’t dazzling; in fact, theylooked like dull shards of glass. They onlyshine after they are cut and polished. Butfor the few hundred villagers of Kheng - itmeant money - and lots of it. The sourceof that wealth, the mines, was above thesnowline.At first, there wasn’t a lot to look at- apart from flying stones that hurtledtheir way down the slopes. But once youhad caught your breath, and looked closer,you saw it for what it was: a frontier postperched high on a mountain.Parts of the mountain were like Swisscheese - burrowed with mineshafts. About300 men worked up here - living in caves,or, if they were lucky, in mud houses. Somestayed up here for weeks on end. Theyworked in teams - miners, diggers, explosiveexperts, cooks, and suppliers. They sharedthe profits of any emeralds that were found.You could buy in as part of a syndicate - andprovide, say, a donkey-load of rice which wouldguarantee you a share. But you needed luck inthis place if you wanted to get rich.Mohammed, the manager of one of themines, told me that he had seen people workfor 10 years and find absolutely nothing. Andthen he had seen people mining for two weekswalking away with a haul of the preciousstones. More worryingly, Mohammed told methat 30 miners had been killed or seriouslyinjured by explosions or fumes in the mineshaftsin the past 10 years.Unsurprisingly, there wasn’t a great dealof science or safety considerations when itcame to mining here. At the entrance to oneHEAVY DUTY: Lacking specialist equipment, miners make dowith DIY equipment | Jason P Howe16Afghan Scene December 2009www.afghanscene.comwww.afghanscene.comAfghan Scene December 200917