They’re golden.
George Wright and Scott Lomu, a pair of former Utah real estate brokers who went bust when the housing bubble burst, against all odds have been mining gold in the West African jungles of Ghana.
The pair — who say their sole reason for tackling the dangerous project is to support large families back home — battle armed neighbors, miles of broken roads, roadblocks manned by Ghanaian gangs and ruthless gold buyers looking to snag their claim at any cost.
“Everybody carries guns,” Lomu, 37, a father of four, told the Daily News. “You have to do whatever you can to take care of your kids. Working in Africa we’re out of our element, but the trick is to try to get in with the locals, be friendly and make as many friends — as fast as you can.”
Almost three years ago, the pair and a third partner, Wally Macias, 36, staked a claim deep in the jungle, 41/2 hours from civilization, and toiled by themselves to find the precious metal. After Macias, a private security guru, died (by suicide) last year, Lomu and Wright vowed to provide for his widow and two children, too.
A day after his death last November, a production company approached them about filming their endeavor.
They first went to Ghana looking for gold two years ago. The original plan was to buy it in Ghana — where it is plentiful — and then flip it for a profit back home.
But the dangers of simply buying the precious metal quickly became clear, and can be seen on the series debut of Discovery’s “Jungle Gold” on Oct. 26.
“There are armed scammers everywhere and we realized that the only way to actually get the gold is to pull it out of the ground ourselves,” Wright, 29, a father of three, said.
“We’ve had to learn how to be miners,” said Wright. “We’ve had to learn how to operate heavy equipment, and we’ve learned everything on the fly and learned some pretty expensive lessons along the way.”
Source : nydailynews[dot]com
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