Post #565

⚫️The Deepest Mine on Earth ⚫️ What do you know about South Africa's own, real-life Khazad-Dûm? The Mponeng Mine in South Africa is a unique and, in the literal sense, hellish site—a place where technological progress meets economic necessity and hard labor. 🔥 This marvel of engineering plunges 4 kilometers deep, where rock temperatures reach around 60°C. If fantastical plots about awakening some ancient evil buried underground existed in real life, this is where it would happen. Incidentally, at the bottom of this mine, scientists have already discovered the ultra-rare bacterium Candidatus Desulforudis audaxviator capable of living and reproducing without any contact with the rest of the biosphere. 🧊 It’s clear that labor under such conditions is truly heroic, but fortunately, South African workers have their engineer colleagues to rely on. To make working conditions even slightly more civilized, the mine is laced with a network of pipes delivering tons of ice, mixed with saltwater to cool the air. But heat isn’t the only problem. As one might guess, gold is extracted from the ore only at the surface — meaning workers don’t just dig downward but must also haul all that ore back up 4 kilometers. ⁉️ According to reports, in the first quarter of 2025, South African miners at Mponeng produced 4,211 kg of gold, meaning they had to extract up to 421,000 tons of rock (with local ore containing about 10 grams of gold per ton). 🎥 What’s fascinating is that Mponeng is just 350 kilometers away from Tolkien’s birthplace, the author of The Lord of the Rings. Fate has delivered an astonishing coincidence—because of all human creations, Mponeng most closely resembles Tolkien’s Moria: a vast underground city-state buried deep within the Misty Mountains of Middle-earth. ✈️Stay informed - @devilsbelow