More than 2,000 years after the ancient Thracians crafted their exquisite jewelry from gold deposits in Bulgaria, hundreds are combing its rivers again in the hope of striking it rich in the EU’s poorest country.
Around a dozen men and a woman stand knee-deep in the waters of the Tundzha river in central Bulgaria. Bent over their green pans, they diligently wash the gravel looking for specks of the precious metal.
“This site must be rich if the Thracians chose it as their capital,” 59-year-old Milka Ganeva said, while sorting through stones with her husband near the Koprinka dam.
Submerged under the waters of the gigantic reservoir, built during the communist era, are the ruins of Seuthopolis — the ancient capital of the Thracian civilisation, famous for its gold jewelry and other elaborate objects fashioned from the plentiful deposits in the rivers.
A legal pastime since 2009, an estimated 1,500 Bulgarians are currently practising gold panning and even have their own association.
“The gold has always been there. It is not by chance that the region that is now Bulgaria was the cradle of Thracian civilisation,” association chief Kiril Stamenov, 52, said.
He said the “the glitter of gold” now “attracts people, especially in a poor country,” from all walks of life.
Options for indulging in the passion appear unlimited in the country — “almost all Bulgarian rivers are gold-bearing”, according to a government report published in August.
Although not abundant enough to merit mining on an industrial scale, the eroding quartz veins in the rocks regularly release gold specs into the rivers.
“We come once a week and have only found eight grams in two years. When we collect 20 grams we will make good luck amulets for our grandchildren,” said Ganeva who has practised panning with her husband for two years now.
The pair even made their own equipment — a dredge with a sluice box powered by a car battery.
Some people have turned panning into a full-time occupation as they try to make a living in the European Union’s poorest member state.
The painstaking process involves hours of wading through rivers.
For 50-year-old electrician Hristo Atanasov, the search matters more than getting lucky.
“It is tiring if you put your mind to finding gold at any cost but if you think about it as something that will help you forget the daily worries, it is a priceless pastime,” he said, sipping a beer.
