Manasse Lomachar, 33, was looking for his missing gold when he saw a group of women panning around a riverbed. When he joined them, he found 3 grams of gold.
Over the past two years, gold prices across the world have jumped exponentially, making it one of the most luxurious materials one can own. But what if you got it for free?
Far away from all major hubs, a small village in Kerala is finding itself in an unusual spotlight for exactly this reason – hopes of free gold. Cheporor in the Kanyarkwat area in Kapenguria Constituency, West Pokot County, is seeing a sudden gold rush as thousands of people have flocked the village over the past two weeks.
But this was no sudden phenomenon. According to a report by the BBC, an accidental discovery of a golden nugget by a goat farmer of the village may have led to the surge in diggers.
Manasse Lomachar, 33, was looking for his missing gold when he saw a group of women panning around a riverbed. “I joined them, and that’s how [the village] realised there was gold in this area,” he told the BBC.
He found a gold nugget weighing 3 grams and sold it for 36,000 Kenyan shillings, roughly Rs 26,615, several weeks ago.
Lomachar believes the news of his discovery triggered the overwhelming surge of people looking for gold in the small village. However, it is not clear whether this lucky find is behind the excitement, or if there is any other recent discoveries.
Authorities estimate that at the height of the rush, about 10,000 people arrived at Cheporor – mostly from Kenya and neighbouring Uganda.
According to the report, people do go for gold panning in these areas but hardly find anything major. But that does not matter for the people who have flocked the village.
Even a small amount of the yellow metal could mean heaven for the men and women and transform their future. Several of the people BBC spoke to said that the extra income could support their families.
“Young men found what appeared to be a substantial amount of gold. The following day, women made another significant find in the same area,” Samuel Kiarie, the deputy commissioner of West Pokot county, told BBC.
He said these two discoveries fuelled the recent surge in people in the village. The official explained that people typically find miniscule quantities of gold in these areas but the discovery of the larger quantities has caught the attention of many this time.
The size of the actual gold deposit cannot be confirmed despite the fact that the precious metal has been discovered here.
Kiarie told the BBC, “I can confirm that small-scale gold traders told us they received an average of about 100 people every day.” However, it was not clear whether the findings were actually gold.
While some claim they have found gold, and others wait, the rush has created business opportunities. More than 200 businesses selling food, water and other essentials have emerged in the village’s new hotspot, according to officials.
However, the sudden influx of so many people has affected the infrastructure of the small village, with concerns over water and sanitation growing each day.
