Why has no one dared to dig the world's largest gold mine for 80 years?

Called 'the world's richest gold mine', this abundant resource is too difficult to exploit.

Kubol gold mine in eastern Russia is one of the gold mines with the highest gold content in the world , with estimated mineral reserves of up to 4,500 tons . It has long been known as 'the richest gold mine in the world'.

However, despite the abundant gold resources here , the Kubol gold mine has still not been successfully exploited after more than 80 years since its discovery .

 Estimated mineral reserves at Kubol mine are up to 4,500 tons. (Illustration).

The Russians discovered the existence of this gold mine as early as the 1940s and the entire area is also filled with gold mines.

However, exploiting this 'huge treasure' is extremely difficult and cannot be completely resolved, even though there are now many new technologies to support it. Even though people really want to, they still cannot take advantage of this natural resource for many reasons.

The geographical location is too harsh

More than 10 years ago, the Russian Government sent people to build a road leading to the Kubol Gold Mine, and at the same time spent huge amounts of money to start building residential areas near the gold mine and offered generous welfare policies to attracting many workers to exploit gold mines.

The government's measures initially had some effect. Many people have traveled long distances to move to Kubol - a cold snowy area to live and work. The lowest temperature here can drop to minus 50 degrees Celsius. Mining minerals in such an extremely low temperature environment is extremely difficult .

Mining minerals in extremely low temperature environments is very difficult. (Illustration).

In addition, the geographical environment surrounding the gold mine is very complex, the terrain is rugged, transportation is inconvenient , and it is 200 km from the nearest city, making it inaccessible to conventional vehicles. Every winter, the only road leading to the Kubol gold mine is blocked by ice and snow. So after a while, life and mining encountered so many difficulties that the number of workers decreased significantly.

In the middle of the land there are ice sheets everywhere, the natural conditions are so harsh that it is difficult for most creatures to survive, let alone humans.

Difficult working conditions

Another problem is that due to the high latitude, the nights here are very long. Sunlight that can reach the gold mine is very scarce, so working time is very limited.

After many years of floods, the rock inside the mine has become so hard that even an electric drill cannot penetrate it. During the process of exploiting this gold mine, the tools were also damaged a lot. Furthermore, the roads are difficult, so the tools and machinery brought by planes are very limited, so the mining work proceeds very slowly.

 The rock inside the mine has become so hard that even an electric drill cannot cut it. (Illustration).

It can be said that the environment and working conditions of mine workers are extremely bad. Workers have to work continuously for 12 hours a day, even in the dark. Many people had physical problems and had to give up. In addition, gold mining also has the potential risk of lack of oxygen, mine explosion, etc., so the number of people who dare to bravely work in Kubol is decreasing.

In fact, in the world there are many mines like the Kubol gold mine that are impossible or difficult to exploit due to harsh natural conditions. However, the resource of 4,5000 tons of gold cannot be wasted in vain. The Russian government is still actively devising many different methods to break the difficulties at the Kubol gold mine. Currently, the expected solution is technological improvements, using machines and robots to mine gold instead of humans.