Unreported World

Deep inside the Gobi desert, one of the harshest and most remote places on earth, a nomadic Mongol horde known as the Ninjas are busy changing the landscape in the biggest gold rush of modern times. But, as Unreported World shows, their battle for survival comes at a terrible environmental and human cost.

Reporter Aidan Hartley and producer James Brabazon begin their journey in Ulaanbaatar, capital of Mongolia, one of the most sparsely populated nations on earth. For seven decades until 1990, Mongolia was under virtual Soviet military occupation - but Moscow also paid the bills. After the fall of Communism, the Russians departed, and the Mongolian state all but collapsed.

Life is harsh: unemployment is high and Mongolians drink 16 million bottles of vodka each month, an incredible statistic for a population of only 2.5 million. The victims of alcoholism and poverty are often children, and the team finds many kids on the street. During winter, when Ulaanbaatar gets colder than the North Pole, they have to burrow into sewers and underground hot-water pipes to avoid freezing to death.

But it's outside Ulaanbaatar, on the steppe, that Mongolia's future is being radically reshaped. Gangs of jobless city dwellers, together with nomadic herdsmen (many of whom have not previously met Europeans), have struck gold in the rivers and mountains around the Gobi desert. Today it's reckoned that Mongolia has the second largest gold reserves in the world.

The Unreported World team embarks upon a journey that will take them thousands of kilometers across the steppe and deep into the Gobi desert to meet some of the hordes of families digging for gold. They're known as Ninjas - named due to their use of large plastic bowls in the gold panning process which are supposed to resemble the shells of the children's cartoon characters, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

The Ninjas are able to eek out a living but the gold rush allows them to do nothing better than survive - and, as the Unreported World team reveals, it all comes at a terrible cost. Traveling deep into the desert, one of the remotest areas on the planet, Hartley finds that artisan miners and large-scale companies have diverted the rivers that run into the Gobi, causing water courses and entire lakes to vanish.

The environmental catastrophe also comes with a spiritual dimension. In traditional Mongolian Buddhism, a religion that is enjoying a huge revival, mining is forbidden: a grave insult to the spirits of earth and water. The Ninjas tell Unreported World that the fact that they suffer illnesses, and that alcoholism, crime and prostitution are rife in the mining camps are an inevitable supernatural punishment. Buddhist lamas also tell the team that they believe the local environmental destruction is also linked to the global warming crisis.

And the Ninja's harsh battle for survival is also against the government. Their way of life is officially illegal and the authorities are trying to evict them to make way for large multi-national mining companies.. As the team leaves Mongolia, it's clear that the country could become a very wealthy economy thanks to its mineral wealth - but at what damage to its environment and the poorest members of its population?

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