“Ninja” is the name of Spanish photographer Álvaro Laiz’s photo series that depicts the informal gold mining trade of Mongolia. The series is named after the people who scour abandoned mining sites for residual quartz or splinters of gold. They are known commonly as ninjas in reference to the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles because of the green plastic containers they usually carry with them as they work.
The photos portray citizens of the small Mongolian town of Zaamar – a settlement of wooden houses and unpaved roads – as they try to make a living in the aftermath of major mining industries that have all but depleted the region’s gold mines and moved on. The landscape is rugged and temperatures hover around a bitingly cold –40 degrees Celsius, but this does not stop the ninjas in their search for gold.
Following the country’s shift from Communism in 1990, many Mongolians were left unemployed and became cattle herders to earn a living, but two devastating winters in 2001 and 2002 exterminated a third of Mongolia’s livestock. Now, thousands of men, women and children engage in gold mining that is not sanctioned by the country’s government in sites that are no longer operated by large mining companies.
Álvaro Laiz holds a Master’s degree in Visual Arts from the Universidad Pontificia de Salamanca. According to his website, “My work focuses on realities usually ignored by mass media. I conceive photography as a tool to give civil society in post-conflict zones the chance to be heard, exploring the environment, customs and traditions of those people at risk of exclusion.”