Why locals won't give up land for gold exploration

A woman grinds rocks to extract gold deposits in Ikolomani gold mines. [Benjamin Sakwa, Standard]

It is on a sunny afternoon and hundreds of residents at the Isulu-Bushiangala gold mining stretch are sitting in groups of about 10 and conversing in low tones.

A section of them are busy refining gold dust they extracted from a mine measuring over 100 kilometres deep. Here, unskilled miners dig deep into the earth in search of the precious gold proceeds as their daily routine.