KOTA KINABALU – The gold frenzy in Pitas has ended with the disappointing discovery that the minerals found were confirmed by experts to be pyrite, a mineral commonly known as “fool’s gold”.
State Minerals and Geosciences Department acting director Webster Wong confirmed to The Star that his team only discovered pyrite at the hill near Kg Boluuh Bongkol, where villagers initially claimed to have discovered gold.
He said people are not allowed to dig the hill any further to avoid erosion.
Sabah geologist Felix Tongkul, who had expected this outcome upon evaluating photos of the minerals, said pyrite is not a precious mineral. It is commonly found in various forms, and is not valuable.
Last week, villagers in Pitas – one of the 10 poorest districts in Malaysia – had initially thanked the heavens after minerals resembling gold were found on a hill near a road construction site.
People stopped flocking to the hill when the authorities closed the area to the public, while waiting for experts to examine the turf.
Today, the department’s discovery that the minerals are not gold was widely shared on Facebook even before the department announced its findings, as Pitas villagers received the news sooner than the rest.
Villager Felix Tijim is among those who posted about the development, and had received mixed reactions from Sabahans in his comment section.
The status posted at about 12pm today has over 922 shares at press time, with most netizens opining that the government may be fooling the people and is trying to keep the gold away from villagers.
However, some saw the positive side of the incident, including villager Jamlyie Latip, 35, who said the incident had brought the attention of the authorities to the terrible road condition in Pitas.
Yesterday, The Vibes reported that Jamlyie had used the sudden attention on Pitas to share the poor condition of the road that links Kg Latip, Kg Patani, and Kg Ampungoi to the town on his social media.
Today, he told The Vibes that a truck has appeared to unload stones on the said road.
“They are fixing the road! We have waited over 50 years for this to happen. This is all thanks to the viral gold incident that had drawn all eyes to Pitas,” he said.
Many similar comments were made by Sabahans, with the most common quote saying: “If discovering gold is what it takes to fix our road, then I am going to pretend to have found gold in my village too.” – The Vibes, November 11, 2021
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