Deepest mine (2024)

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The deepest mine in the world is AngloGold Ashanti's Mponeng gold mine, near Johannesburg in South Africa. By 2012, the operating depth had already reached 3.9-km below the surface, and later expansions have resulted in digging below the 4-km mark.

The deepest mine in the world is AngloGold Ashanti's Mponeng gold mine, near Johannesburg in South Africa. By 2012, the operating depth had already reached 3.9-km below the surface, and later expansions have resulted in digging below the 4-km mark.

The maximum recorded temperature in the Mponeng Gold Mine, the deepest mine located 4 kms from the ground is reported to be around 66 degrees Celsius (151 degrees Fahrenheit). The average temperature in the mine is around 39 degrees Celsius (102 degrees Fahrenheit).

A trip from the surface to its deepest point takes over an hour, but the harsh conditions of the mine did not stop an Ecuadorian marathon runner from completing a half marathon within the mine.

The so-called orogen deposits also belong to the primary gold deposits some of the largest gold producing regions in the world belong to this type. These gold deposits lie at a depth between 1200 and 4500 metres and were created due to mountain formation.

As of 2023, the Bingham Canyon mine in Utah, United States, was the deepest open-pit mine in the world, with a depth of more than 1.2 kilometers. Bingham Canyon was established in 1906 as a copper mine, and is the world's largest excavation made by humans.

Ten miles underground temperatures can reach up to 900 degrees. The “superhot” rock located this deep into the Earth's crust holds the heat the researchers are hoping to use.

Deep underground mines are “hot” work sites because of the heat from the rock itself. Ground water flowing through hot rock formations becomes hot and adds to the air temperature. Activities like drilling, blasting, and welding add to the heat load put on miners, on the surface and underground.

As a general rule, the crust temperature rises with depth due to the heat flow from the much hotter mantle; away from tectonic plate boundaries, temperature rises in about 25–30 °C/km (72–87 °F/mi) of depth near the surface in the continental crust.

The Superdeep Number 3 in Kola, Russia, remains the world's deepest hole into the earth, at 12,261m. It took from 1970 to 1984 to get this far.

Is there still gold in Deadwood? ›

Merrick, Sol Star, and Al Swearengen all shaped Deadwood from a rough mining town to an iconic western town. Although prospectors scoured the area for the smallest flecks of gold in the 1800s, there is still plenty left to be found!

The Kola Superdeep Borehole was just 9 inches in diameter but at 40,230 feet (12,262 meters) reigns as the deepest hole. It took almost 20 years to reach that 7.5-mile depth.

Temperatures underground increase by 72-87 degrees Fahrenheit per mile of depth, mostly due to that geothermal heat. Other factors, like machinery, mechanical processes and the metabolic heat created by people moving around, make it so the average temperature in some mines reaches 125-130 degrees.

The deepest mine, the Mponeng Gold Mine in South Africa, descends to an operating depth of over 4 km (2.5 miles, or 13,123 ft). A trip from top to bottom takes over an hour. Why can't we dig deeper than 12.2 km into the Earth?

Mponeng currently holds records as the world's deepest gold mine and the world's deepest mine, with depths reaching over 4.0 km below the surface. Because temperatures can reach up to 150°F in the mine at such depths, an ice slurry must be pumped into Mponeng to maintain temperatures that can be withstood by humans.

Harmony Gold, South Africa's biggest gold producer, became the owner and operator of the Mponeng underground mine by acquiring AngloGold Ashanti's remaining South African assets in October 2020.

Bingham Canyon Mine - Wikipedia.

Part of state-run Codelco, 55 kilometers east of Rancagua, El Teniente is the world's largest underground mine. Its more than 2,400 kilometers of tunnels yield more than 400,000 metric tons of refined copper per year.

It's safe to assume that over these past ten years, the average well depth has only increased from there. Yet the world's deepest oil well is not in the United States. It's in Russia, off Sakhalin Island and it extends 15 km or 49,000 feet into the ground.