The pursuit of wealth and curiosity make a person climb to the tops of inaccessible mountains, dive into the depths of the ocean, fly into space and even climb underground. After all, it is here that practically all the wealth of our planet is collected. Coal and metals attract business so much that in the pursuit of profit, mining companies step beyond the boundaries of what they have known, without even paying attention to it.
The risk is really very high - plunging kilometers underground, people can already only assume about the danger that awaits them. At such depths, the bowels of the Earth claim the rights to their possessions and even the air temperature here can reach 60-70 degrees.
But this does not affect development in any way and the mines continue to set depth records, sinking into the unknown. Some of them are already so deep today that some of the surrounding residents quite seriously consider them the thresholds of the underworld itself.
Minerskaya-Glubokaya
Donbass
Depth: 1546 meters
This mine was commissioned only two decades ago. The equipment used here is considered very modern and the number of accidents is kept to a minimum.
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Mponeng
South Africa
Depth: 3800 meters
Here, not far from Johannesburg, gold is mined around the clock. The parent company that owns the mine, Anglogold Ashanti, promises to go even deeper in the near future. And yet, only here a strange bacterium lives, feeding on radioactive ore. Wonderful, Lord, your deeds!
Deep Western Mine
South Africa
Depth: 3800 meters
One of the most dangerous mines in the country. People are constantly dying here - but when did people not die for the yellow metal? The temperature at the bottom of the ZShGZ reaches 60 degrees.
Witwatersrand
South Africa
Depth: 4500 meters
No amount of ventilation can save workers at such incredible depths. According to the owners, modern cooling technology can easily reduce the temperature from a hellish 65 to a perfectly acceptable 28 degrees Celsius. Come on, modern technology in South Africa?
Tau-Tona
South Africa
Depth: 5000 meters
The leader of our today's hit parade of man-made portals to the underworld is the giant Tau-Tona, which is served daily by as many as 35 thousand people. Over the years of its existence (the mine was put into operation back in 1957), greedy corporations have mined as much as 1,500 tons of gold from here. How many workers are left down forever? Nobody will ever know about this.