El Dorado in Venezuela: The price of gold

The mining town of El Dorado, in the Venezuelan state of Bolivar, is named after the legendary city of gold and other riches, which is said to lie somewhere in South America. The myth was spread by Spanish conquistadors in the 16th century. But in fact, most of the 5,000 inhabitants of El Dorado are poor.

The gold rush may be long gone, but there are still numerous mines and camps around El Dorado, where gold-dense sand is extracted and processed. The inhabitants of El Dorado use the proceeds to pay for the goods they need for their daily lives, and the grains of gold are carefully weighed in stores.

As cash or cards are rarely used in El Dorado, the prices on the market are quoted directly in gold weight. For 0.02 grams you can buy a small packet of corn flour; for a whole gram you can buy goods worth $85-100 (€74-87). Bags full of foodstuffs such as flour, pasta, oil, margarine, ketchup and powdered milk await their buyers here.

The town's oldest inhabitants remember how particles of gold used to emerge from the town's clay streets after a rain. "Gold is a blessing given to us so we can buy what we want, but you have to work hard," 48-year-old Jose Tobias Tranquini told the AFP news agency.

Miners equip a boat to travel to the mining grounds. El Dorado was founded in 1895 as a military fortress when Britain and Venezuela fought over the region, rich in minerals and oil. Today, most of the inhabitants are employed in mining, either legally or illegally. Gold extraction is difficult and dangerous, and mine collapses have already claimed dozens of lives.

There are also risks involved in processing the gold-bearing sand extracted from the mines. It's ground in machines powered by converted car engines, and then washed in water and toxic mercury to separate tiny gold particles from other metals. This is not only harmful to humans; environmentalists say it amounts to "ecocide."

The sand is heated with a blowtorch to remove impurities, before the gold can be traded or sold. "The danger of this is the smoke" produced by the mercury burning off, a mill owner explained while smoking a cigarette. The reward for a family of five at the end of a day's hard work processing a ton of sand: 1 gram of gold.

Miners can sell their hard-won gold to numerous dealers in El Dorado. However, most people prefer to pay for their purchases directly with the precious metal. Venezuela's currency, the bolivar, has already lost 50% of its value this year, but the price of gold remains relatively constant.

In addition to gold, there are also large deposits of diamonds, iron, bauxite, quartz and coltan in the region. The wealth is both a blessing and a curse, as it attracts organized crime. Numerous people have died in clashes between rival criminal gangs, and the extortion of small-business owners is widespread.