UYANGA, MONGOLIA — The air underground was dank and smelled of labor.
Hunched in his one-man mine, Zorigoo clawed at the dirt with a homemade pick. He scooped earth into a bucket and hoisted it through the sunny hole above, where his wife, Saraa, began sifting the soil for a telltale glint.
A 21st century gold rush has begun to transform the economics, politics and environment of this ancient land of Huns and Khans.
The nation of largely nomadic herders, where one in three people lives on less than a dollar a day, has some of the world's most valuable gold and copper deposits. But like diamonds in Africa or oil in the Middle East, precious metals offer Mongolia a volatile gift.
"We are now struggling with two different things," former Prime Minister Tsakhiagiin Elbedorj said. "The first is poverty, but the second is how to manage this richness."
The bonanza provides an intriguing test case for what economists call the resource curse: How can Mongolia avoid the fate of nations including Iran, Venezuela and Congo, where natural bounty has fueled corruption, sapped entrepreneurship and failed to bring lasting wealth?
"The question becomes, what are you going to do with all that money?" said Arshad Sayed, the chief World Bank representative in Mongolia. "Where is it going to go? How is it going to be used?"
Gold's easy rewards are no harder to spot than the new Hummers lumbering through the streets of Ulan Bator, Mongolia's threadbare capital. Construction cranes swing above a downtown flush with cash.
But new dangers also are clear: Mining is ravaging rivers that sustain herding lands. Public protests have targeted global mining companies that stand to profit from Mongolia's riches. And watchdog groups are pushing for laws to prevent corruption and ensure that windfalls become a springboard for education and broad-based growth.
For most of its history, the country knew no such quandaries. Wedged between China and Russia, the Mongolian steppe seems little changed from the 13th century empire of Genghis Khan, whose armies' use of horses and the compound bow helped them conquer lands from Asia's Yellow Sea to Europe's Danube River. The only echo of that empire today is the Naadam festival with its "three manly games" -- archery, wrestling and horseback riding.
