Haunting Images Of Russians Mining For The Gold That Stalin Once Needed

Russia is the world's fourth largest gold producer, and Kolyma in the far north-east of Russia is one of the regions most flush with gold. 

During Stalin's rule, prisoners of the Gulag were sent to Kolyma and forced to mine for gold, which was desperately needed to finance economic development.

Now, many of those in the region choose to mine for gold. The miner settlements have however been decreasing since the 1990s. 

Russia Beyond The Headlines (RBTH) and photographer Sergei Smirnov put together a feature giving us insight into gold mining in Kolyma.

Thanks to Russia Beyond The Headlines for giving us permission to run these images.

Kolyma is one of Russia's richest gold mining regions. Miners first pump water from a reservoir to "flush the gold-bearing ores and separate the gold in a rinsing device"

Gold ore is then loaded onto the rinser.

Operators release water through a hydromonitor.

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