Going for gold

Miles from Kyrgyzstan’s largest mine, a retired gym teacher has mastered the art of small-time prospecting

In the years after the Soviet Union’s collapse, Murat Duisheev, like hundreds of other men from Kyrgyzstan’s Naryn region, began panning for gold in local rivers. The work is physically taxing, seasonal, and dangerous, and Murat eventually decided to end his prospecting career and become a physical education teacher. But when he realized it took him a month at his new job to earn what he’d previously made in a day, he returned to the gold-hunting game. That was over two decades ago, and today, at 71 years old, Murat still makes regular trips to the river.

Kyrgyzstani photographer Danil Usmanov was first introduced to the Naryn region’s gold prospectors in 2017 when he visited the area to document its informal mining sector. That same year, a local filmmaker released a short documentary about Murat, triggering a wave of visits from parachute reporters of whom he quickly tired. This spring, hoping to get a more in-depth look at Murat’s work, Danil returned to spend several days with the gold-panning former gym teacher, eating meals with Murat’s family and following him and his crew out to the river.

This story first appeared in The Beet, a weekly email dispatch from Meduza covering Central and Eastern Europe, the Caucasus, and Central Asia. Sign up here to get the next issue delivered directly to your inbox.

Kyrgyzstan’s Kumtor mine, the site of the largest alpine gold deposit in Central Asia, sits just east of the Jetim-Bel Range in the inner Tien Shan mountains. About 160 kilometers (100 miles) west of the mine, in one of the country’s coldest regions, lies the Kichi-Naryn River, which originates in the Jetim-Bel Range. Murat Duisheev and his crew have been mining gold from the Kichi Naryn for 24 years. After the collapse of the USSR, many men from Kyrgyzstan’s Naryn region, and specifically from the villages of Eki Naryn and Tash-Bashat, began prospecting in the area; for a time, he regularly saw more than 300 people out on the river, searching for gold.

But the local gold craze of the 1990s eventually came to an end, and for a while, so did Murat’s prospecting career. After deciding to dedicate his life to volleyball, he began working as a physical education teacher at a school in a neighboring village. His monthly salary, however, came out at just 3,000 som, or about $34 — a sum he could earn in a single day of panning for gold. Before long, he decided to return to the river.

Gold mining on the Kichi-Naryn is highly seasonal work. In the summer, the river’s current is strong enough to carry people away, which has earned it the nickname “Bloody River” among locals. This means Murat and his fellow prospectors must wait until winter, when the water level drops, though the river freezes and becomes impossible to enter when the weather gets too cold. “You can’t be scared — the river will sense it and may sweep you away,” Murat says.

One of the windows of Murat’s home looks out onto mountains and forest. In one area, spruce trees form the shape of a swastika; rumor has it, they were originally planted by a German World War II prisoner of war. An old Audi, once the most popular car in Naryn, is waiting for Murat outside. His team is sitting in the car, ready to roll. After giving some hay to his livestock, Murat, the most experienced prospector in the group, gets in the passenger seat. On the way to the river, the group picks up their colleague, Amantur, in the village of Eki Naryn before continuing on to an area called Kapchygay. In the summer, locals come here to relax and hold barbecues; now, in the winter, it’s where Murat and his team search for gold.

After donning their protective gear, the men descend into the water and begin searching the area they call “the quarry.” Murat and two of his colleagues bring sediment from the bottom of the river up to the surface. Another colleague then carries the bucket to the shore, where a fourth, Kanat, sifts through the soil in a tray. Murat watches Kanat closely. When Kanat announces that there’s gold in the bucket, Murat grins and heads to the shore to see for himself.

Occasionally, the entire team gathers around the tray to see the gold emerge, their expressions like those of hunters. It’s the same look Murat gets in his eyes when he’s watching a volleyball fly back and forth on the court.

At lunchtime, the men dump the water out of their suits and set them out to dry before taking out a pot full of food. They get comfortable on the rocks and then eat together. In total, they spend about four hours in the water. On some days, they say, it’s even warmer in the river than on land.

Back in Eki Naryn, Amantur’s son is standing outside a store, waiting for his father to return and buy him some ice cream. After delivering the gold to a buyer and dividing the profits equally between themselves, the men all head home. Murat’s pregnant wife and four of his children are waiting for him back at his house; his eldest daughter lives in Naryn, where she attends university. After eating dinner, Murat goes to bed; tomorrow, he’ll wake up and do it all again.

Photos and text by Danil Usmanov

Translation by Sam Breazeale