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What is the deepest mine on Earth?

Author

Emily Ross

Published Jan 06, 2026

AngloGold Ashanti's Mponeng gold mine, located south-west of Johannesburg in South Africa, is currently the deepest mine in the world. The operating depth at Mponeng mine ranged from between 3.16km to 3.84km below the surface by the end of 2018.

What is the deepest mine in the world located?

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.

How hot is the deepest gold mine?

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.

How deep is the Kola Superdeep borehole?

This is the Kola Superdeep Borehole, the deepest manmade hole on Earth and deepest artificial point on Earth. The 40,230ft-deep (12.2km) construction is so deep that locals swear you can hear the screams of souls tortured in hell.

Where is the biggest mine in the world?

The world's biggest open-pit mine currently is the Bingham Canyon Mine in Utah. The copper mine, which is part of Rio Tinto's Kennecott operation, is roughly 4km wide and more than 1.2km deep.

43 related questions found

How deep is the deepest diamond mine?

Known as the deepest diamond mine in the world, an astonishing amount of diamonds are pulled from this mine every year. In fact, the mine runs so deep that the atmospheric pressure is noticeably different at the bottom, which is just under half a mile deep. A few facts about Jwaneng Mine: It has a depth of 625 meters.

How deep can gold be found underground?

What is this? Orogon Gold Deposits – many of the larger gold deposits belong to this type and these deposits can be found at approximate depths of between 4000 feet and 15,000 feet. These deposits are typically caused by the formation of mountains and exist in marine deposits or in metamorphic rock.

What is Robinson deep?

Robinson Deep Gold Mine (South Africa)

One of the gold mines owned by a company known as Consolidated Goldfields established by Cecil Rhodes.

What was mine 9 based on?

It is inspired by true events of coal mine disasters, but not one accident in particular. Instead, the movie was written as a juxtaposition of realistic portrayals of miners and their families. “Mine 9 is told from the perspective of a few different mine accidents and weaved them together,” Sizemore said.

How deep is the Soudan mine?

When the mine closed in 1962 due to rising production costs, it was the oldest and deepest mine in the state, at 2,341 feet below the surface.

Which is one of the deepest gold mine of the world class 8?

The Mponeng gold mine located in the Gauteng province of South Africa, is the deepest operating mine in the world. It was the last underground operation by AngloGold Ashanti in South Africa.

How much gold is still undiscovered?

According to the US Geological Survey, the underground gold reserves are currently estimated at about 50,000 tons.

Where is most of the earth's gold?

Oceans are the greatest single reservoir of gold at Earth's surface, containing approximately eight times the total quantity of gold mined to date.

How much of the earth is gold?

So we've estimated that within 4000m of the surface of Earth's crust there is 35 billion tons of gold. With a remaining 87 billion under the ocean. Only a small portion of that is concentrated enough to mine.

Why is it hot in deep mines?

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.

Who owns the Kimberly diamond?

The Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History has acquired an extraordinary 55.08-carat fancy yellow diamond for the National Gem Collection. The renowned Kimberley Diamond is now on display in the Janet Annenberg Hooker Hall of Geology, Gems and Minerals, in close proximity to the Hope Diamond.

What country has the most diamonds?

Russia and the Botswana hold the world's largest diamond reserves, totaling 1.1 billion carats and 300 million carats, respectively, as of 2021.

What is the oldest mine in the world?

The oldest mine in the world is the chert (silica) mine at Nazlet Sabaha, Garb, Egypt. It is estimated to have first been in use around 100,000 years ago.

Is lead still mined in the US?

Here are the five largest lead mines by production in the US, according to GlobalData's mining database. The Red Dog Mine is a surface mine located in Alaska. It is owned by Teck Resources and produced an estimated 97.5 Thousand tonnes of lead in 2020.

What are the 10 mines?

What are the 10 biggest gold mines in the world?

  1. Muruntau, Uzbekistan. The Muruntau mine in Uzbekistan is the largest gold mine in the world in terms of production. ...
  2. Carlin, USA. ...
  3. Olimpiada, Russia. ...
  4. Pueblo Viejo, Dominican Republic. ...
  5. Grasberg, Indonesia. ...
  6. Cadia East, Australia. ...
  7. Kibali, Democratic Republic of Congo. ...
  8. Cortez, USA.

Can you make gold?

Yes, gold can be created from other elements. But the process requires nuclear reactions, and is so expensive that you currently cannot make money by selling the gold that you create from other elements.

Is there gold on the moon?

Golden Opportunity on the Moon

The moon isn't so barren after all. A 2009 NASA mission—in which a rocket slammed into the moon and a second spacecraft studied the blast—revealed that the lunar surface contains an array of compounds, including gold, silver, and mercury, according to PBS.

How much gold is in the sun?

Eventually, scientists calculated that the Sun contains almost 2.5 trillion tons of gold, enough to fill Earth's oceans and more. Still, that's just eight atoms of gold for every trillion atoms of hydrogen — a tiny amount when compared to the mass of the Sun.

Which is one of the deepest coal mine of the world?

In Europe, the deepest coal mine Shakhterskaya is located in Donbass. The depth is 1.5 km (1,546 metres), it has been developed since 1986. It is officially the deepest coal mine in the world.