Mines don′t really look scary. Instinctively, you get a secure feeling about a cleanly dug hole in the ground, at least relative to, say, a park suspended in the sky. But there′s nothing secure about the rock deep under the Earth.
Our shoot at the Mponeng gold mine in South Africa took us as far underground as anyone had ever been, where they′re extending the mine down into untouched territory. It was hot, it was disorienting, and, with every blast-generated quake, it was terrifying. And for the 3,500 men who work on site, it′s how they make their living, and sometimes how they meet their death.
At the Mponeng mine, high-tech prospecting and high-impact explosives meet the forces of nature. In the dark. And I got out of there as fast as I could.
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