(MENAFN- AFP) Hernan Pineda risks his life daily digging for gold, toiling in a dangerous, unlicensed mine in Colombia, in a crude settlement that has sprung up in a sort of modern-day gold rush.
Many here in San Antonio, located in the country's northwest, live in shacks made of plastic or wood. But the money to be made is irresistible.
And there are now amenities to ease the rough life in this two-year-old encampment -- barber shops, nightclubs, cell phone stores, and gold trading stores.
Colombia has more than 14,000 mines, 56 percent of which are unlicensed, the government says.
From January 2012 to June of this year, 86 people died in mining accidents and 39 were injured, according to the mining ministry.
Pineda, aged 40 and the father of eight kids, is one of 4,000 people, including women and children, that work scratching gold out of the side of a mountain in Antioquia department.
He has worked in illegal mines since he was 13. In San Antonio, he started off earning a percentage of what he mined each day. He has done well.
"I invested the money I earned in a drill, and became a partner in a mine," he said, adding that part of his revenue also goes to buying explosives for his work.
His job is to set off detonations to loosen earth, set up reinforcing beams to try to make things safe, and direct a team of 20 miners.
The gold fever has drawn many people from other parts of Antioquia, all zealously hunting for the shiny precious metal.
Life is hard but the money is indeed good. Some days people can make as much as the equivalent of $265, about 30-40 percent of the value of what they mine.
Pineda is much better off than grunt miners. He say he can earn up to $13,000 a month. He lives in a rented apartment about 30 kilometers (20 miles) from the mine, and each week travels to Medellin to see his girlfriend.
'The lure of gold is great'
But he is under no illusions. The job is dangerous, and he says his working life will be short because of the precarious safety conditions in the mines.
"It is always this way in illegal mining. The idea is to get as much as you can, and with people trying to mine more and do it faster and faster, it is chaotic," Pineda told AFP.
He said there is also the risk the government will shut everything down. Indeed, authorities have declared the zone dangerous and plan to get the miners out.
"It is an area with a lot of seismic activity. It is steep, and has geological faults. The more people work the mountain, the weaker it gets and there is a greater risk of landslides," said Cesar Hernandez, the Antioquia risk management director.
The settlements that have sprung up in San Antonio have no water management infrastructure so the earth is soaked and that makes thing worse, he added.
After 27 years working down in the earth's bowels, Pineda says he has witnessed every kind of accident and seen colleagues killed, blinded or crippled.
Pineda says he himself has serious lung problems. Now that he has turned 40, he is considering giving up mining and going to work in a store he bought in Medellin with money he has earned.
But it is a tough decision to make, he says, because "the lure of gold is great."
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