Four Men Jailed, Suspended, for Illegal Gold Mining
On.cc · 1 SOURCES1 day ago2 MIN
Summary
A court in Qianshan District, Anshan, Liaoning, has found four men guilty of illegal mining after they carried out unlicensed sand extraction and gold screening in village areas. The men were sentenced to prison terms ranging from six to 10 months, all suspended for one year, and were also fined, with the mineral products and illegal proceeds confiscated
Key Points
- The case involved Zhong, Fu, Ji and Sun, who orally agreed to hold 25 per cent each in the operation before starting the illegal mining scheme
- Without a mining permit, they hired an excavator and a loader, and used mercury and gold sluice equipment to extract gold from sand
- After first being discovered by land authorities in April, they did not stop, but moved to another township village and worked from evening to early morning to evade oversight
- In just a few days, the group illegally extracted 310.11 grams of gold at 82.5 per cent purity and sold it for more than 264,000 yuan
- Police caught the men on the spot on April 26 to 27 while they were continuing excavation in a villager's cowshed; the illegal gains were later surrendered and the land levelled
Why It Matters
The case shows that mainland courts are treating unlicensed small-scale mineral extraction as a criminal matter even when the operation is moved between villages and disguised through off-peak working hours. For Hong Kong readers, it is also a reminder that gold extraction using mercury and improvised village sites can bring criminal penalties, confiscation of proceeds and court-ordered follow-up after environmental damage