The dug-up land on the eastern outskirts of Johannesburg - until last week a cattle pasture surrounded by barbed wire - has become the latest epicenter of South Africa's gold rush, AFP reported, BTA writes.
Dozens of gold seekers have flocked to the small town of Springs - approximately 50 kilometers east of Johannesburg, digging in the dirt in search of gold. It is reminiscent of the fever that created Johannesburg - the financial capital of South Africa - in the early 20th century.
The gold seekers, equipped with picks, came as if from nowhere. "They spread like a virus", security guard Princess Toko Mlangeni told AFP from her tin-roofed home overlooking the field, recalling their first appearance on February 8.
The sudden invasion of Springs, the birthplace of 1991 Nobel Prize winner for literature Nadine Gordimer, is a reflection of a wider global gold rush. The price of the precious metal has risen to more than $5,000 an ounce, double its level in January.
According to Mlangeni's brother, Nicholas, the town's race began when a man digging a hole for a fence post noticed the unusual hue of the soil and washed it with water. The news spread on social media and within days the field was filled with enthusiastic prospectors. Most are looking for survival rather than wealth in a country where unemployment is hovering around 32%, according to government figures.
Mlangeni has also tried her luck. "I found very little, just this much", she said, showing a small section of her pinky nail. Given her upcoming 12-hour shift, the search for this mother of two is hardly worth the effort.
Others are more insistent.
Siyabonga Sidontsa fills sacks of maize meal with soil. "I came on Tuesday. I live a 30-minute walk away and I bring the sacks back with this," he said, pointing to the wheelbarrow he uses for the purpose. Working 10 bags of soil a day, he has earned 450 rand (less than $30) in five days - more than he has made in a week since he lost his job as a gardener five years ago.
Some teams work at a faster pace, loading small dump trucks. The men dig, working in flip-flops through the thick black soil. The women carry the loads to the vehicles. One of them sneaks through the dug-up areas under the watchful eyes of cows driven from their pasture. She balances a bag of freshly dug soil on her head.
For Sidontsa, the answer is simple: they need to open a real mine here, "so we have somewhere to work".
South Africa – known for its mineral wealth, experienced a similar fever in 2021, when crystal-like stones sparked a diamond rush, and experts determined that they were actually just quartz. South Africa has a thriving underground world of illegal gold prospectors.