Most people picture mining as digging a hole and pulling something shiny out of the ground. But this place doesn’t just go down a bit; rather , it drops so far beneath the Earth’s surface that the journey alone takes about an hour. A mine where the rock walls are naturally hot enough to be dangerous, where ice is pumped underground just so people can breathe comfortably, and where thousands of workers disappear below the surface every single day. This is the Mponeng Gold Mine in South Africa, and it might be one of the most intense workplaces on the planet.

How deep the world’s deepest gold mine Mponeng really goes

The Mponeng Gold Mine stretches roughly 2.5 miles beneath the surface. About 4 kilometres straight down. To put that into perspective, it’s around twice as deep as the Grand Canyon. Each morning, close to 4,000 miners head underground. They squeeze into massive elevators that carry up to 120 people at once. The first descent alone drops more than 1.6 miles. At peak speed, the lift reportedly travels at about half a mile per minute. After that, there’s another elevator, followed with walking or driving. By the time workers reach the lowest levels, they are closer to the Earth’s core than most humans will ever be.

Inside the Mponeng Gold Mine’s underground heat

As you go deeper into the Earth, things heat up. Everyone knows that in theory. But in Mponeng, down in the deepest tunnels, temperatures can hit around 140 degrees F. So engineers had to pump ice down from the surface in a thick, slushy mix combined with salt. Fans then blow air across it, cooling the tunnels and creating something that feels like an artificial weather system underground. Even then, the temperature is kept at around 86 degrees F.

Where the Mponeng Gold Mine sits in South Africa’s gold heartland

The Mponeng Gold Mine is located in South Africa’s Gauteng Province, sits within the Witwatersrand Basin, a geological formation that has shaped global gold history. This area is believed to contain the largest gold reserves ever discovered. Nearly half of all the gold humans have mined reportedly came from this region. The discovery of gold here led directly to the founding of Johannesburg and a massive gold rush that changed South Africa forever.

How much gold comes out of Mponeng

Every day, around 6,000 tonnes of rock are pulled from the mine. The gold has to be extracted later through processing. In 2022, Mponeng reportedly produced close to 200,000 ounces of gold. Current estimates suggest the mine will remain active until around 2029, assuming profitable.