When we think about minesoften we imagine large open -air excavations or shallow underground tunnels. But there are places where man has pushed his ability to exploit the limit, literally going to the depths of the earth. One of these extraordinary places is found in South Africasouth-west of Johannesburg, and is the gold mine more deep of the world; is called Mponeng And it comes to a depth of well 3.9 km under the earth’s surface. To get an idea, it’s like putting the Eiffel Tower one above the other! Not far from Moneng there is also the Mine of Tautonaanother important South African gold mine. But why was it necessary to dig so deep?
At those depths they are still found golden veins rich enough to justify i costs and the difficulty of extraction. The mine of Mponeng For years it has been one of the most productive in the world, even if today gold is increasingly difficult to find. Descend to the end requires time: the lifts They use about an hour to get to the deeper levels. But it’s not just a matter of distance. Below, the conditions I am extreme: the temperature of the rock can overcome the 60 ° Cand to make the environment bearable for workers, the air must be artificially cooled. To do this, an extremely efficient ventilation system is used: millions of liters of refrigerated water are pumped every day to cool both the air and the work environments. This involves a high energy consumption, which represents one of the main economic challenges of deep mining.
Another important theme is that relating to safety. At these depths, in fact, miners face high risks related to earthquakes underground, called “Rock Burst“, which can cause collapses sudden of the galleries. For this reason, the mine is equipped with sophisticated systems of monitoring And alert.
At these depths, scientists have also found Microscopic life forms who manage to survive lightless and with very little oxygen. Studying these organisms helps us better understand where life in extreme conditions could exist, also on other planets; Thanks to these difficult conditions, the Moneng mine has also become a natural laboratory for geologists and biologists. Here the movements of the terrestrial faults are studied and extreme bacteria are analyzed, offering unique data on phenomena difficult to observe on the surface.
