After arriving by train in Changsha, the provincial capital of Hunan, I got a taxi to the long-distance bus terminal.

“Where are you headed when you get to the bus station?” my driver asked.

“Lengshuijiang.”

“Never heard of it, where is it?”

“How about the City of Antimony?”

“I know this place! I was told the trees can’t grow in the mountains there anymore.”

The mines of Lengshuijiang

My driver turned out to be well informed. But the antimony mining industry there had not just done serious damage to the environment; it had destroyed the health and wellbeing of the local villagers as well.

Yang Ruihua, a father of two in his early 40s, was squatting and gasping for air after carrying some bedding up to the dilapidated house of his elder brother Yang Chuhua’s half way up the hill in the village of Chuanshan. Only his sister-in-law Li Qiuxiang lives there now.

The fine dust inside the nearby antimony mine where Yang Chuhua worked for decades clogged his lungs and led to pneumoconiosis, the disease that finally claimed his life in 2012. Yang Ruihua, who worked the same job as his brother for years, has also been diagnosed with Stage Two Pneumoconiosis. He has started to develop symptoms such as shortness of breath and chest pains.

Li Qiuxiang and Yang Ruihua at home in Chuanshan

Ever since her husband’s death, Li Qiuxiang has been fighting a lone battle for justice. An illiterate farmer and former miner herself, Li has made a name for herself in the village by taking numerous trips to Changsha and Beijing and pleading her husband’s case to the provincial high court.

The legal action aimed at recognising the labour relationship between her late husband and the mining company, has already cost her a fortune but she refuses to back down and is now mobilising more and more villagers to file a collective lawsuit against the company.

There are at least 60 confirmed cases of pneumoconiosis in the village, spread out across just 400 households. The village head estimated the actual number of victims is well over 100. At least ten have died so far. Unlike Li Qiuxiang, however, most victims feel hopeless and just accept their fate.

I met one of Yang Chuhua’s workmates who had also been diagnosed with Stage Two Pneumoconiosis. He was standing in a field with a cigarette in his hand. He said that after the diagnosis, the mine would not let him work there full-time but when he feels strong enough he still does some odd jobs. He is happy to be able to work, at least sometimes.

I asked an old man if he wanted to file a lawsuit to demand compensation after his son’s death but he didn’t respond. I was told later that the mine did not pay a penny for his loss, and, just like the majority of villagers, he wants to wait and see whether the others succeed in their lawsuit first.

Antimony is a metal used primarily as an alloying material for lead and tin, especially in the production of batteries. The world’s largest deposit of antimony is in Lengshuijiang, although much of it has already been depleted after decades of mining.