Behind her hundreds of people work side by side, hacking into the rocky ground with hoes and shovels.

Others carry the earth to a nearby seasonal river, where mostly women crouch in the murky water, washing and sifting mud and sand hoping to detect a tiny trace of the element.

Some of the more experienced miners are deep in holes excavating the earth and drilling at rocks with the same goal.

Hope is kept alive by stories of those for whom the effort has paid off - like Lomachar.

Samuel Kiarie, the deputy commissioner of West Pokot county, says he thinks the rush began after two notable discoveries.

"Young men found what appeared to be a substantial amount of gold. The following day, women made another significant find in the same area," he tells the BBC.

Kiarie explains that women have been finding small quantities of alluvial gold along the same seasonal riverbed for years, typically earning $8-$23 a week.

But the uncovering of larger quantities at the beginning of August is what caught the attention of many people.

Kiarie reckons as rumours spread, the number and size of the discoveries were exaggerated - drawing in ever larger groups of people with little or no mining experience who hoped to replicate the reported early successes.

Since the initial rush, the number of prospectors has gone down to around 2,500 as some have given up the search.

While there is little doubt that some gold has been found in the area, questions remain about the size of the deposit in the earth and its commercial potential.

"I can confirm that small-scale gold traders told us they received an average of about 100 people every day," the deputy commissioner says - though whether the finds were actually gold is not known.

Individual discoveries reportedly range from amounts worth a few hundred Kenyan shillings to one find valued at approximately 78,000 shillings ($600).

West Pokot county borders Uganda, and communities on both sides have long-standing social and family ties.

Mugisha Godfrey, an artisanal miner from Busia in eastern Uganda, travelled to Cheporor after hearing about the discovery from a friend.

He immediately set out for the village spending about 100,000 Ugandan shillings ($27) to get there.

However, the living conditions in Cheporor are not favourable, he says.

"We sleep under the trees, and when morning comes, we continue working. Sometimes we work both day and night," Godfrey tells the BBC.

So far, he has found nothing. But he is not discouraged.

"We can't return unless we find something. Only when we have found what we need can we go back home," he says.

For others, the gold rush has created opportunities without requiring them to dig.

More than 200 businesses have emerged around the site, according to local officials, selling food, water and other essentials to the village's new population.

Irene Ameja travelled from neighbouring Baringo county to cater to the crowds. She sells bottled water, soft drinks, bread, milk and other foodstuffs.

"I am hoping that when I leave, I will have made enough money to continue with my business and expand it," she says.

But the rapid growth of the settlement has also exposed the area's lack of basic services.

"This is a forest and we are in the middle of the mountains," she says. "We don't have clean water to drink or even to bathe."

For women, she adds, the challenges become greater after dark: "You have to find somewhere safe to stay because most of the people sleeping here are men."

Local officials admit the influx has placed enormous pressure on an area with little infrastructure, no piped water and limited sanitation.

Public health officials have been deployed to monitor conditions and help prevent disease outbreaks.

The authorities say they have also increased security patrols amid concerns over sexual violence and the vulnerability of women and girls at the site.

Officials are also worried that children could be drawn into mining activities as schools prepare to reopen in September.

Measures are being put in place to discourage young people from remaining at the site once the new school term begins.

Those still searching are increasingly turning to deeper excavation.

Several truckloads of material have already been transported to nearby Ortum town for processing, with the authorities awaiting the results.

Until then, the size and commercial viability of any mining remain uncertain.

For Lomachar, the answer is not to stop the mining, but to make it more organised.

He wants the government to help local miners establish safer and more effective ways of finding and extracting the gold.

"We would ask the government to help us with things like metal detectors, which could help us find out whether there are other minerals here, so that our community can develop," he says.

He points to the homes nearby as evidence of the area's poverty.

"If you look around, there are hardly any houses with iron-sheet roofs; most are just thatched houses."