Currently, the only countries and institutions with gold reserves above 1,000 tons are the United States, Germany, France, Italy, Switzerland, China, and the International Monetary Fund (IMF). There are 32 countries and regions with gold reserves over 100 tons and 47 countries with gold reserves less than 10 tons. The stronger the country, the more gold reserves it has.
The winter road – the only inland entrance to Kupol from the port town of Pevek.
Therefore, gold mining is always valued, both on an industrial and manual scale. All countries in the world strictly control the gold mines. However, there is a gold mine everywhere there is gold, but no gold miner can exploit it. It is also considered the most “lonely” gold mine.
This gold mine is called Kupol Gold Mine. This gold mine was discovered around the 1940s. It is located deep in the ice layer of eastern Siberia (Russia).
Workers camp, home to 1,200 people who work at the Kupol mine.
Isolated in the heavy snow and ice of the Russian Far East, this gold mine is one of the most difficult to mine in the world.
The end of the world
Russia is the country with the largest mineral reserves and energy resources in the world, but because the country is located at high latitudes, the climate is cold all year round, so a lot of land seems isolated for many years, There is rarely a human figure living there.
Wrapped to protect against the cold, the drills were shipped two years in advance.
The Kupol Gold Mine is one such place. Located north of the Arctic Circle, in Russia’s Chukotka Autonomous Region to the northeast (Far East), the Kupol gold mine is located 220 kilometers from the nearest town. Getting there was difficult. Staying there was even harder.
The Kupol gold mines have been discovered since the 1930s. Gold deposits buried under the ice in this remote part of Russia were once mined by prisoners. Many people have tried to approach to mine gold here, however, due to extremely harsh weather, down to -50 degrees Celsius, they have to give up gold mining.
Work continued around the clock but only a few miners needed to get to the ground to load ore and reinforce walls.
Nearly 7 decades of isolation, this place finally has a human figure.
Nowadays people are increasingly dependent on gold. Gold remains one of our most precious resources. More than just jewelry that represents wealth, gold is also an essential ingredient in everything from smartphones to the latest HIV and malaria diagnostic kits.
That means, no matter how cold it is, even at the end of the world, people still have to go to those “frozen hells” to meet their needs.
Semi-automatic ore crushing and smelting process.
In 2007, Canada’s Kinross Gold Group bought the entire Kupol gold mine for $700 million and began mining with specialized equipment in 2008.
As of 2011, the Kupol gold mine produced 2 million ounces of gold and more than 20 million ounces of silver. In 2019, the company mined 20% of the world’s total gold, Mining.com said. Kinross Gold currently owns 2 gold mines Kupol and Dvoinoye in Russia.
In February 2021, Kinross Gold’s official website announced the detailed plan of gold mining at Kupol mine. Accordingly, around 2025, the Kupol gold mine will be fully exploited.
Here, people grow more vegetables of all kinds to have fresh food.
Before that, it took people 5 years to build the mine. Kinross Gold has employed 1,200 workers, most of them from Brazil, to work in gold mining. Sure, this is hard work, workers/employees have to work 12 hours a day for two consecutive months before taking a two-month break.
The road paved with gold
There are 2 ways to access the Kupol gold mine. One is an air route (Kupol Airport is 12 km north of it) and a temporary road, 360 km long, accessible only from January to April every year (the summer month to avoid excessively cold temperatures. ). This road is also known as the winter road – the only inland entrance to Kupol from the port town of Pevek.
Kinross Gold rebuilds this road every year between November and January, with construction requiring temperatures of −25 degrees Celsius or less. Equipment, supplies and fuel needed during the winter months must be ordered 2 years in advance and shipped to the port of Pevek, which is open only for 3 months in the summer.
When they get off work, the miners divide their time between the gym, the TV room, the library, and the chapel.
In 2008, the winter road served 1,944 truck trips to transport 3,000 container units, 60,000 tons of supplies and 25,000 tons of diesel fuel.
At all other times of the year, the Kupol gold mine can only be reached by helicopter and fixed-wing aircraft.
If in the 1930s, people could not access the Kupol gold mine, up to now (the 21st century), Kupol gold mine is proud to be the most advanced mine in the world. Workers mine about 21 tons of gold per year.
To do that, Kinross Gold has built a very complete infrastructure for Kupol, creating conditions for workers to work. Workers’ wages are 25% higher than the regional average. The $40 million workers camp includes a full-size gym, sports hall, pool table, music room, library, prayer room, TV, and video library.
The bedroom is soundproofed against the noise of the mine.
A sealed tunnel, 900 meters long, dubbed the “Arctic Corridor”, allows workers to travel between the camp and the mine without suffering the cold in the winter.
Russian photographer Elena Chernyshova and reporter Andrey Jouravlev spent 10 days at the Kupol gold mine to capture images of the gold mine at the ends of the Earth as well as the lives of thousands of people in this cold, harsh place.
“The whole worker camp was like a lunar base in the middle of a cold landscape,” she said.
