AFP
Squinting in the harsh midday sun, Ry Kuok emerges slowly with a bag of rocks on his back from a hand-dug mine in a remote corner of Cambodia known as the “Gold Forest”.
He's one of hundreds of prospectors searching for the yellow metal in the isolated village of O'Clor in northeast Mondulkiri province, where a modern-day gold rush is threatened by the arrival of foreign mining giants.
On a good day, the 29-year-old can earn about $12.50. Not bad in a country where a third of the population survives on less than a dollar a day.
The work is dangerous, difficult Ä and completely illegal.
Carried out by tens of thousands of Cambodians across the impoverished country, the practice has been quietly tolerated by the government for decades.
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