Treasure hunting in madagascar. Its dangerous and difficult work. But still everyone here has high hopes that theyll find a fortune. And maybe today will be their lucky day and theyll find some gemstones in the sand. Dig and im at the now what if i were really found a sound fine it could be dangerous for me if i sell it for a lot of money the crooks will be off to me in a big hurry that would be scary i couldnt sleep at night i get out of here early in the morning and go back to my village of course people there would be watching me too but the safest thing would be to get the money out of here quickly not on a. Bend and they told me that it would be out until he knows what the stone is worth and he wont tell anyone about it. We are traveling to some illegal saffar mines in eastern madagascar are near the village of on save a bit. From here will have to go by foot. It was absurd we had to wait four weeks to get permits to legally visit illegal mines to government ministries and an International Environmental organization had to approve our visit but without those papers we and our translator would not have been allowed to make this trip. We have to sign some documents and promise that we wont steal any sapphires i think im honestly. Camping gear and enough food and water for three days a dozen young men will serve as porters its going to be tough going all the way to the mines some of the local residents warned us about that the porter say it will take about six hours to get there. The village seems like the last outpost of civilization our group attracts lots of attention. Stone often see white people around here. Valuable blue sapphires were found in two thousand and sixteen in the. Nature reserve since then tens of thousands of prospectors. From all over. Although this activity is illegal. Supplies and mining gear have to be carried into the area on foot. To look for sapphires too but i didnt find any that i wanted to go home at some point so i thought. About the flee but im still stuck here. But at that i think the. Two soldiers accompany us for our safety sapphires are extremely valuable and madagascar is one of africas poorest countries the finds of precious stones have attracted criminals. After two and a half hours we reach the edge of the woods and a holy place. The people of madagascar identify sacred areas and their forests here they make small offerings of branches or food that have these and over time the people used to come here to pray for the forest Something Like that but send sound files were discovered everyone prays that ill find some of its alumni must let us. Both use. The trail seems to go on and on and the porters say will never make it to the mines before nightfall weve been walking for six hours now and they reckon that at our speed well need six hours more. So we decide to stop here. We set up our tents our guides say that well be safe here. While. Most of our porters originally came to this area to find precious stones but they say they earn more in the long run as carriers if they work for local contractors they get the equivalent of three year for a trip like this. The sapphire trade has transformed the town. In southern madagascar into a small scale commercial center. Twenty years ago this was a rural backwater now the town is bustling with activity especially early in the morning. But all along the main street dealers wait for prospectors to. Bring in new finds by some estimations about fifty percent of the worlds sapphires now come from. The oem sabera is french but hes lived in madagascar for years hes fascinated by precious stones and is always looking for especially beautiful specimens. From the first on us and the most important thing is the color if you find one you like moisten it. And shine a light on it or check for clarity on any cracks and then make your offer you know. If the seller doesnt like it there are two hundred other dealers here i shall know. What are some people even try to pass off colored glass as precious stones they dont get far. Blue sufferers are well known in europe but the gems here come in all the colors of the rainbow most rough sapphires from madagascar are sent to asia for cutting and polishing and very little of that work is done here the company that works for is one of the few in madagascar that turns local gemstones into high quality jewelry. And if honest so up wants to sell the gem that he found in his mind shaft if its a sapphire it affects a good price here. Checks it. In and he determines at once that its not a sapphire just smoky quartz. Thing and a discounting i havent and im really disappointed that it wasnt a sapphire with a im going to keep looking for the real thing but the one of them but im sad that it wasnt worth very much for the call i was there when the did the offical euro than. Hope and disappointment is every day life in a lockup but the sapphire. Has provided the town with infrastructure it never had before. And from from from from from. Most workers in the mines around in our day laborers they work for mine operators for less than the equivalent of two euros per day but this mine belongs to a man from sri lanka to fly. For fun a solo works here a lot he cant live on the sale of stones from his own small mining shaft. But. He wanted the news it will take us about three months to get down to the last of gravel where the gemstones off we will. Not that if we find sapphires we can make a good living. For what theyve been digging here for three months many of the workers also have their own mine shafts if they find one gem they hope that it will be part of a larger deposit for and thats when the Big Companies will take over. Right over the last five and i thought the foreman shouts at them to work faster over. The phone. For a locker is now so well known that its become a Tourist Destination a one hour visit to the mines costs as much as the workers earn in two days. Its Eleven Oclock time for lunch and a two hour break. Twenty years ago there were no houses here and no infrastructure. They found us so i met his wife what he saw in. She came here with her parents as a child. Like her husband she has only one name they say thats a common practice in rural areas the couple have three children most of the stuff are minors dont earn much but they still have their dreams. No one can sit in and of course id like to have some sapphire jewelry but no one here has any plus i feel that they use only if we do get some one day it would be a nice reminder of the time we spent here. This month and we could pass it down to our children. They nonetheless have any time hes had them on and say. The fun of so i never went to school he cant read or write like millions of others in this country his parents couldnt provide him with a proper education. I came to some people in my home village found sapphire as a made a lot of money so. To my god my cattle it is like they do with the fact and so i sold some of my own animals and came to a lock on the week i built this house with the money that i saved other than my successor. Moti so as sets off for the river that runs near. The. Local residents wash their clothes here and their vehicles as well. But above all the river represents hope the hope of finding gems in the sand and gravel and getting rich some people have actually done it. Was. Over the years mostly so has become something of an expert on broad gems. Shes sifting gravel from the family small mind the one where if on a solo found the stone that turned out to be smokey quartz. Only. Known to me. Yet a copy of what i might hear that there are a lot of his football but that sometimes we get lucky and sometimes we dont know what they have to tell it often takes weeks or months to find anything. Then lets say out of why do i do it so that my children can have a better life get it to those that then if they dont whats money for. Later some prospectors sift through the sand and soil that money so and others have left behind this girl puts any pebble that glitters into her mouth for safekeeping. Even toddlers practice the miners train for them its still a game. But for motives so art and her family it seems to be the only way to survive. In. Madagascar is one of the worlds poorest countries but its also a veritable Treasure Island in the Central Highlands between the laca and the rain forest with the illegal mines is the city of on sirrah bay. This is john poor old ruts in a revival also known as new through tina he runs a gemstone cutting shop enunciator back the business has been in his family for two generations. The area around the city is known for what used to be called semi precious stones although the distinction is no longer made. A high quality amethyst can be worth more than an inferior sapphire. Here hes using a special machine to cut a piece of quartz that has a valuable inclusion trapped inside their own if im not on the ladder is part of my job is the competition. Thats you and absolutely need high quality stones but lots of people are looking for them the. Boss the mines around and say robbie dangerous problems with all those criminals hanging around you dont like it but you have to go to the mines because its hard to get good jams anywhere else top. Buys his rod gemstones from local dealers there are hardly any sapphires in this area. During the colonial era and syrah bay was popular with french people today the city is. An important economic center. But poverty is widespread. Here mr tino meets with gem dealers who offer him stones from several mines. Spin els for marines and terminate he checks the mall and negotiates prices but only after weve turned off our camera. Its metal its harder now than ever some mines have been picked clean so we have to find new sites and the government always wants more money its almost impossible to get a permit you know without thats. True but the mining business is more difficult now that there are fewer stones it used to be up to find them ten metres down now its twenty one and you have to go further into the bush to that there was quite a lot. Still all three men hope that their children will still be able to make a living in the gem trade this time its just. This is the citys largest gemstone market just about everything that madagascar has to offer is on sale here. This year tina arrives at the market with the quartz crystal he was working on his family rents a small stone here china is troubled by recent developments in madagascar is gemstone business. It only has one warm wonderful up and if youve got too many players involved in the market nothing works but we pay our taxes and the government should take that into account. So those if foreigners come here to buy stuff give some up here and they should do just that and not exploit our resources its the mines should stay in our hands is the point thats. Back in the Forest Reserve our truck continues we slept pretty well in our tents over night and now were back on the trail this part of the journey is especially difficult mostly because of the mud. Although we dont see them we hear the song of the lemurs. This species of lemur called the injury is unique to the forest so. Eastern med a gas car their habitat is seriously threatened by the illegal mining. Three hours later we finally reach a small settlement one of many illegal mining villages in the reserve. I was one of the residents has some chickens for sale we buy several for dinner after hiking almost thirty kilometers uphill downhill and through the mud we deserve a good meal. When. We notice that no one here is working today its thursday people are washing clothes cutting hair and playing cards not god if you. Sylvia says ana the woman who sold us the chickens is applying a traditional chalk mask it also serves as a sunscreen sylvia explains that its foggy or taboo to work on thursdays. Overland there was a cave in the other day and three men were trapped fortunately they all survived. It goes in six thirty and then recently a man drowned in the river and. Because theyd worked on thursdays and with my tongue. We figured this would be a good time to have a look around the village its called sambar took the place of stones. There used to be dense forest here but in january twenty seventh team someone found sapphires. These settlers hope that they will too most of them work for local contractors. Many sell food to earn extra cash at three times the usual price and after all it takes a lot of work to bring supplies here. That i would ask europeans who buy sapphires to pay a reasonable price like that one of them we lose money on these deals in gems of was lots of money we find beautiful soft finest and then the brokers claim that their floor so they pay off in last minute that it was that was. Black and white the one that when you go to the kitchen sylvia has been here since january and shes thirty six years old and used to work in the mines in the south then she heard that the stones here were bigger and more valuable as she left her four children at home with her mother. And of my. I miss them a lot but i havent found any set fires yet so i dont have the money to go visit them the afikomen they moved i make a little money by selling these dumplings. In the mines i work for a local boss. He pays me a cup of rice a day yes no money. Were accompanied by an employee of the Environment Ministry and one from the ministry of mines its the first time theyve been to the site and theyre checking out the situation for themselves the mining official doesnt want to talk to us on camera but his colleague from the other ministry finally agrees and at them overseas and i mean what makes me sad to see the forest like this who for this is sacred land here for if it be the government has already taken some action on the mines and the destruction of the forest for the most of it poverty is still driving people to walk us. Through the wood once theyre destroying the forest. The government pushes them out but they just turn out somewhere else where not unlimited amounts of money given to. The illegal mines are a politically sensitive topic various sources tell us that some government officials are involved in the gemstone Business Funding for shutting down the mines has suddenly disappeared nobody wants to talk about this openly the government has apparently turned a blind eye to the destruction of the local environment. The mining has endangered the habitat of the injuries those lemurs that we heard on our trip to the forest they too are one of many gas cars you need to treasure. Today were visiting a protected in reserve located about one hundred kilometers south of the mines. Joining us is conservationist and lemur expert jonah routes and buzz off. We only have less than ten percent of the first left he says virgins he says urgent so i would like to tell the authorities. Today you can get. Money from mining but along about the last. Most of the injuries are staying out of sight but we do manage to find some. Injuries live together in small groups they feed on about thirty different types of leaves that can be found only here. If the forest is destroyed the injuries face extinction in the roof. We need a strong government we need honest authorities we dont need the corrupt authorities to need us to. Ease. The trees or i dont and i still believe on that and i feel responsible. In the south of madagascar prospectors steak new claims when ever they find a small treasure somewhere the first mines appeared here a few years ago. The shafts are now so deep that its hard to breathe down there so air comes through a plastic to. See. How many they will be rewarded this simple sealed is pretty alice but im not afraid and we have to find sapphires we need the money to. Get it if. You can get it sometimes a miners life depends on just a piece of sticky tape. I said but its now four in the afternoon of on a so i has finished his shift and helps to hand out the workers daily wages and each of them receives the equivalent of just over one and a half europes. They have to pay for all their mining gear themselves including ropes shovels and sieves that eats up a lot of their income. Here if ana so his wife is doing some shopping. They can often afford to eat meat but sometimes if they dont find any gems in their own minds or if on a saw is laid off for a few days they go hungry she added filet of good luck and life here is getting more and more difficult see our income doesnt cover our expenses by a longshot. But ive gotten used to this place i prefer to stay here because its even harder elsewhere wanted to come eyes as it think. Its the same with the fun a saw in the evening he sometimes meets friends for coffee a small luxury. They discuss their hopes and dreams for the future. Good to see. That was that one table then but i want to become a boss but the one that in modern up to be that i want to have a good line that we cannot walk so much and in but when we got that it wouldnt suit us and i dont so like to have my own minds and on and on the web people would work for may not be then im a son but a lot of it is that its not over. Its friday morning sylvia says ana the mother of four takes her suv to the river. The day of rest is over and now the Treasure Hunters are back at work. The sapphires are buried just a few meters below the surface the sand is washed away in the water. Everyone hopes to find a gem because it will make their lives easier. But sylvia hasnt found anything valuable since january most come away empty handed. Along to not the. Dream of having a stone house so that my children will be comfortable and my mother wont suffer. Her and her old age. My familys only hope and thats why im here mom and dad and even though its hard work and ill stay until i find enough saffire sell my game cut on the stuff it up to and. Sylvia and the other miners are struggling to survive they have no time to worry about protecting madagascars unique Natural Environment maybe they will later but by then it may be too late. To play. Big fun beethoven. His works that god has for turn out. The maestro and finish. Beethoven first bond twenty. Sure of. What unites. What divides. To. Try to force. What binds the continent together. The teachers and stories aplenty. Spotlight on people. Early on t. W. Long war. Shift living in the digital age. Coming up twenty seven teams most google names shining on instagram. And lots of every day annoyances. But first computer Game Developers and egyptologists are teaming up to decipher hieroglyphs using artificial intelligence. They were inspired by a game where players transport them