Gold-Rush Fever Rages in Bulgaria After Demise of the Communist Government

On a bleak winter’s morning, dressed in shabby clothes and knee-deep in silt, Bulgaria’s first gold-diggers set about their business.

Outlawed by the former Communist regime, they are now panning near Elin Pelin, at the bottom of a new dam on the Lesnovska River 18 miles south of Sofia.

“I dredged the gold for these by myself, something few women in the world could boast of,” said one woman panner, up to her ankles in slush and waving a hand decked with four bright yellow rings.

Besides gold dust in the recently built dam, which is still dry, diggers have found sticks of the precious metal several inches long.

With luck and perseverance, several grams of gold a day can be sifted from the sands--one digger estimated that there are at least 1,000 pounds of gold still to be found at the site.

The big prize everyone hopes for is a nugget.

Gold-digging spread across the country after the Communists were ousted in 1989. The state still has a monopoly on gold trade, but the police do not bother the diggers.

“In the first days of 1990, many from the Communist officialdom came to us wanting to exchange millions of leva (hundreds of thousands of dollars) for our gold,” said one gold-digger, who did not wish to be identified.

“The trunks of their cars were full of loose bank notes,” he added.

On the Bulgarian black market one gram of gold (23.5 karats) costs $12.

“We are able to pan off about two grams of gold per person every successful day,” said Traicho Alexandrov, 43, a large, burly man, who used to be a driver.

He and his wife live in the moon-like landscape of the gold diggings in an old battered bus with a chimney and a stove, a table, a couple of beds and a cat.

Elin Pelin gold-diggers hope to earn about $480 a month--not much by Western standards, but not bad compared to the average monthly salary in Bulgaria of $60.

Alexandrov and his family are getting technically more sophisticated.

After months of experience in various rivers they no longer work with the dredger that used to wash out tons of soil for the tiny specks of glittering dust. Instead, they have made their own equipment--a giant metal panel on which they accumulate the soil, and a system of sluices.

“We also bought a diesel generator for the water pump and the pan-off and rented a digger for the ground,” Alexandrov said.

Bulgaria’s gold-rushers also examine their discoveries scientifically, using up-to-date chemical analysis.

According to amateur gold-diggers and geologists, there is gold in most of Bulgaria’s rivers. “But it is not enough to attract serious gold miners with modern equipment,” one said.