Indonesia tackles illegal mining boom amid gold rush
The miners usually work at open sites next to rivers, where they dig shallow pits in the hunt for deposits
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West Tabir, Indonesia
HULKING excavators claw at riverbanks on Indonesia's Sumatra island in the hunt for gold, transforming what was once a rural idyll into a scarred, pitted moonscape.
It is one of a huge number of illegal gold mines that have sprung up across the resource-rich archipelago as the price of the precious metal has soared, luring people in rural areas to give up jobs in traditional industries.
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