The villagers excavate the agate stone and smooth the hilltop.
CCTV Finance’s “Half an Hour in Economy†reporter arrived at the Nanhong agate mining area in Jiukou Town, Meigu County, Liangshan Yi Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan Province. On a hill of less than 500 square meters, a large pit was dug out. The reporter probably counted it. There are more than a dozen such pits. Beside each pit is a pile of rubble that is three feet away from the excavation site. Such a large pit is called a pit in the local area.
Pirate pits in hilltops frequent three feet of gravel excavation
Approaching the pilfer pit, the reporter saw that there were one or several men in each pilfer pit in a few meters or even a dozen meters of pits, and they did not lift their heads to force the gimmick in their hands. Next to them, several women took the children with the little girl to further screen the mined minerals.
Smooth hilltop villagers take snow to dig agate
Villagers risk their lives to excavate into the wind and pilfer 10 meters deep without protection measures
At this moment, another pit attracted the attention of reporters. It was a squad that looked small, but ran round logs.
CCTV Financial Economic Half Hour Reporter: How long has this been dug?
Local villagers: Digging about four or five days.
Reporter: Are you all a family? Is it a relative?
Local villagers: Yes.
The hole in the hole facing the log is only about three meters wide. You can look down and there is more than ten meters in depth. There is only one log attached to the hole and there are ropes and pulleys. The people in the pit will want to come up. Someone pulled the pulley and looked like a deep well. The reporter noticed that there was no support for such security measures, but the excavators told reporters that they felt that mining was not dangerous and that it was not worth the benefit of being caught by the police.
The villagers with no protection measures for burglary do not think that threatening to be caught by the police is dangerous
Local villagers: There was a voice when the police came and they ran away when they heard the sound.
During the interview, a reporter from the “Half an Hour in Economy†learned that the Meigu County government had earlier banned the piracy of the Nangong agate . However, the villagers knew that they would be fined if they were caught, or even went to jail. The risk of pit collapse is a risk, and driving the excavator to take this risk is naturally the high market price of Nanhong agate.
Local villagers: If they meet well, such a big four or five million yuan.
On a small mound beside the reporter, the reporter saw that women carried four or five children, who looked like they were about 10 years old, carefully reviewing them with small gimmicks. During the conversation, the reporter learned that most of these children are doing agate business for their parents at home.
"Half an hour in the economy" reporter: Do they not go to school?
Local villagers: Do not go to school, these filial piety generally do not go to school.
"Half an hour in the economy" Reporter: Is it not right to go to elementary school?
Local villagers: Generally do not go to school for these filial piety.
The excavators told reporters that the government has recently been watching very closely. Many people have not come up for excavation. Otherwise, those who buy stones and sell stones on small hillsides can reach one or two thousand people.
The reporter noted that in order not to miss a small piece of agate stone, the villagers usually open a small hole above the agate stone in order to verify their identity, while other parts are covered with so-called stone skins. There is no impurity, and the condition is fine. It depends on the buyer's experience and luck.
Local villagers: Started in April last year.
Reporter: Last April?
Local villagers: Almost (earned) more than 170,000 yuan.
The villagers purchased raw stone at a low price and resold the resale price twice
On the way to the mining area, we met a little girl whose home was not rich. In order to make more money, her family also joined the Nanhong Agate mining team, and she was responsible for Buy more stones from other people.
Local villagers: Yesterday we bought a hundred kilos here. I bought more than 6,000 yuan.
The little girl told the reporter that the Nanhong agate is different in price due to its fineness, ranging from tens of yuan per pound of rubbish to several thousand and even over ten thousand yuan.
Local villagers: There are large, more than 200,000 yuan. There are also 156,000 yuan.
The reporter followed the little girl to the mountain to acquire the stone. After some bargaining, the little girl bought a pile of Nanhong agate stone at a price of 700 yuan.
Reporter: Is it okay to make a thousand yuan a day when you make a profit?
Local villagers: There are good stones. If you sell a little more, you can sell them for two or three thousand yuan.
Nangang Agate Clash of Boasts 1 Million RMB Professionals: Years Rise Thousands of Times
Located in Xichang City, which is more than 100 kilometers away from Meigu County, there is a famous South Red Agate Commercial Street - Haimen Fishing Village. Here is China's largest South Red Agate trading market. At 6 o'clock in the morning, the city of Agate has not yet opened its doors and people have already filled the door. As soon as there are foreign buyers, there is a group of people who come together.
Agate buyers flocking before the market opens
At the gates and stalls of the Haimen Fishing Village, most of them are uncarved Nan Hong agate rough stones. These have only opened a small stone or no stone at all. Whether it will be worthwhile after being opened will test the eyes of buyers. This type of trading gambling is extremely rich.
South Red Agate purchase home: skin is too thick to see inside, the risk is relatively large.
From the 2013 opening of the Nanmeng Agate Market in Haimen Fishing Village, Agate dealers once opened a shop here.
Xichang Nanhong Agate Dealer Zeng Chaozhi: In the peak period, there was no way to make a phone call. It had only one base station, so the phone basically couldn’t get out.
Zeng Chaozhi said that due to the recent strict control of the government, the amount of material in the mountains has suddenly been reduced a lot. Naturally, the number of people who buy raw materials has become less, and the market has become sluggish. In the shop where he came to Zeng Chaozhi, he introduced the Nan Hong agate variety to the reporter. Although they are red agate stones, the prices are very different.
Dealer Zeng Zhichao details the agate varieties
Reporter: How much is the price of cherry red?
Zeng Chaozhi: The best kind of cherry red reached more than 10,000 grams.
The sculpted Nanhong agate is no longer on sale, but sold to buyers on the basis of grams, ranging from a few hundred dollars to over ten thousand yuan.
Zeng Chaozhi told reporters that even if he is an industry insider who specializes in the business of Nan Hong, buying rough will have more than half of the risk. The remaining cost will naturally be added to other stones.
Zhang Bowei, deputy chairman of the South China Red Cross Professional Committee of the China Culture Information Association, was also the first person to discover the South America Red.
Zhang Bowei, deputy chairman of the China Culture Information Association's Nanhong Professional Committee, said: The initial price, because it was just starting, was a few tens of dollars and a hundred or two hundred dollars. It was a pound.
Zhang Bowei is looking at the rising price of Nan Hong a little bit. The price has now increased by more than a thousand times.
Zhang Bowei: Because the true kind of Nanhong agate is the rarest of rare treasures, it is very rare.
More than 30,000 ecosystems were destroyed by flooding and stealing by privately-owned pirates from Nanhong Onyx.
Meigu discovered the news of Nanhong Agate and walked away from the depths of the mountains, bringing with it thousands of people who came to buy agate and crazy villagers.
Gu Kangshun, head of discipline inspection of Gu County Bureau of Land and Resources: As of 2014, according to incomplete statistics, the mass of people we drove to steal and dig out agate took more than 30,000 people.
Since the discovery of the South Red Agate in Meigu County, the calm of the past has also been broken by this red stone. In addition to these sacks of red and brown agate, piles of seized tools were also piled up in the storage room. Among them were rock plotters and diesel power generators. In order to prevent the phenomenon of stolen money from being stolen, the Meigu County Bureau of Land and Resources combined several departments including public security and safety supervision to set up a joint conservation team of more than 100 people to conduct occasional patrols in major mining areas, but the effect is still not satisfactory.
Hu Kangshun told reporters that more than 100 members of the ore-dressing team appeared to be overstretched. As the South Red Agate of Meigu County was gradually formed through volcanic eruptions, it scattered in every corner of the mountainous area. Often, each time they reach a place, only the empty caverns are left.
On January 12th, two days after the visit to Jiukou Township, reporters followed the team to come to this place again. Unlike two days ago, the villagers who had gone to the ore-riding team had disappeared and disappeared.
Meigu County Husbandry Police: We will leave when we come.
Reporter: Is this evidence so good?
Meigu County Husbandry Police: It is not easy to catch guerrillas.
The police admitted that stealing was not good and arrested
The Husbanding Team has no other way but to stay in the mountains and stay up all night. The large area, low labor force, and difficulty in obtaining evidence are the major challenges faced by the team.
Privately digging the rancid mines of the Nanhong agate and its easy to cause landslides and mudslides will require additional personnel to be deployed to care for each flood season. Because the people below the mining area are the villages inhabited by people, the consequences of natural disasters will be very serious.
Hu Kangshun: Our ecology is relatively fragile. If we do not backfill, we will have mudslides and natural disasters in the flood season. Therefore, the county government will organize special personnel and teams to fill in this matter.