©

Reuters

High altitude -

At over 16,000 ft (5,000 m) above sea level, the cold climate and lack of oxygen in La Rinconada is a challenge.

©

Getty Images

Perpetual snow -

Perched atop Mount Ananea in the Peruvian Andes, it spends much of the year in sub-zero temperatures.

©

Reuters

People came flocking when the price of gold went up -

The rising price of gold attracted thousands of people to La Rinconada, braving a precarious mountainside road covered in grass, rocks, dirt, and often ice. The journey can take several days.

©

Reuters

This shanty town was formed -

Men and women were coming for decades, improvising a city of houses made of zinc.

©

Reuters

Poor working conditions -

The majority of miners operate under the cachorreo system, which means they work 30 days without payment and take whatever gold they find on the 31st day as their salary.

©

Reuters

It's very dangerous work -

The work in the mines is very dangerous, as they use DIY explosives with dynamite powder, and are under threat of falling rocks, poisonous gases, and a shifting glaciers.

©

Reuters

Women are not allowed in the mines -

Women aren't restricted because it's dangerous, but rather because the miners reportedly believe that if women enter, the gold disappears.

©

Reuters

But women are left to do everything alone -

Eva Chura, 42, told Reuters that the men aren't helping, adding, "I don't count my husband, because he is no help as a father or a husband."

©

Reuters

They must somehow still provide for their kids -

Chura, breastfeeding a three-month-old in this photo, added, "I'm the papa and the mama."

©

Reuters

So they started scavenging -

The "pallaqueras," as these female gold pickers are called, took matters into their own hands and found a way to find some economic independence.

©

Getty Images

They figured out where they could go -

They weren't allowed in the mines, but they were allowed to go to the piles of waste rocks discarded from the mines. They picked up whatever gold had been left behind.

©

Reuters

A very early rise -

The mining cooperatives allowed the pallaqueras to pick through the stone discarded from the mines for one hour each morning starting at 6:30 am.

©

Getty Images

Anise and coca leaves -

Eva Chura is pictured drinking anise and chewing coca leaves as part of a ritual performed before searching for gold.

©

Reuters

Coca leaves help with altitude sickness -

At such a high altitude, the air is dangerously thin, but coca leaves are often used as a remedy to ward off altitude sickness.

©

Reuters

Painstaking work -

The women pick away at prospective stones in hope of finding a speck of gold.

©

Getty Images

Very little yield -

"In a week sometimes I can get 1 gram or 2 grams of gold," Chura said. "If I'm lucky it can sometimes be 20 grams, but that's down to luck."

©

Getty Images

Picking through waste -

"Sometimes there's gold, other times no. At the moment it's very low," Chura said.

©

Getty Images

Danger of thieves -

The gold often draws out the skeevy people to the area, hoping to steal gold they didn't work to collect. Warnings like the mannequin pictured are meant to deter them, meanwhile women opt for the thriftier work of scavenging.

©

Reuters

They’re contributing to the town's economy -

The town’s economy relies almost entirely upon the gold mines in the surrounding mountain-face.

©

Reuters

They’re contributing to the town's economy -

The money the women make from gold goes into their fellow women's businesses.

©

Reuters

The women want to work -

Hundreds of pallaqueras get up early to scour a fresh load of waste rock from the nearby gold mine.

©

Getty Images

Protecting each other -

Due to the danger of the work they do, the women have organized themselves in various associations of pallaqueras.

©

Getty Images

Danger of mercury poisoning -

Water and mercury are used to extract gold from rocks, so mercury contamination is a big threat in the community, especially with the lack of sewage system.

©

Reuters

The difficulty cannot be understated -

No sewage, very little government presence, no hospitals, and no running water are just a few of the things that have hardened the people of La Rinconada.

©

Reuters

The far reaches of human ambition -

It shows you how far people are willing to go in search of a better life.

©

Getty Images

They persevere -

Chura admitted, "It is very sad to live with garbage and dirt, washing in the cold, with water from the mountain. But you tell yourself to get over it."

©

Reuters

Appreciating the truest joys in life -

Chura's daughter, Yaquelin, finds an opportunity to smile and laugh despite it all, and Chura agreed, "The children give you strength and courage to work."

©

Reuters

Women empowering themselves -

Chura's other son, Luis Miguel, jumps on a bed in their small home, which the pallaquera is quite proud of. "We don't want for anything," she said, "We have everything."

©

Reuters

A very different life -

The pallaquera women are certainly walking distinct paths at the top of the world, but they're not the only ones living in extreme climates and hoping to strike some form of gold.

Click here to read about a day in the hottest, driest, and lowest place on Earth.

©

Getty Images