Where does this come from, and can I check it?

Its workings reach about 4 kilometres below the surface in South Africa. The figure is taken from Britannica, which is linked in full on this page. Every fact on Mondo Knows names its source rather than repeating an unsourced claim.

Is this really a records & extremes fact?

Yes. It sits on the Records & Extremes shelf, one of 2,600 sourced facts grouped into space, animals, the human body, history, science and more. Category pages collect every fact in the same field.

What else can I read about it?

The links under the fact point to a quiz, game, puzzle or calculator on the same subject, and the shelf below shows related facts. The wording here is original, and quoted phrases are marked as quotations.

Mondo Knows Facts

Mponeng is the deepest working mine in the world

Its workings reach about 4 kilometres below the surface in South Africa Mponeng gold mine, southwest of Johannesburg, descends to roughly 3.9 kilometres below ground, and the ore body continues further down. Rock temperatures at that depth exceed 55 degrees Celsius, so the shaft is cooled by a refrigeration plant and ice slurry pumped underground. Travelling from the surface to the deepest working level takes over an hour. It sits in Mondo's records & extremes collection, one of 200 facts that each trace back to the reference below.

Where this comes from

Britannica

Facts that can change over time are reviewed and updated. If something here looks wrong, Mondo would rather know than be confidently incorrect.

Go further

Technology trivia Science trivia

More facts like this

Bagger 288 is the heaviest land vehicleThe bucket wheel excavator weighs 13,500 tonnes and is 240 metres long A Peruvian gold-mining town is the highest permanent settlementLa Rinconada sits at about 5,100 metres in the Andes The deepest scuba dive reached 332 metresEgyptian diver Ahmed Gabr set the mark in the Red Sea in 2014 The Challenger Deep is the deepest known point in the oceanIt lies nearly 11 kilometres down at the southern end of the Mariana Trench Veryovkina Cave is the deepest explored cave on EarthExplorers have descended more than two kilometres beneath the surface South Africa spreads its government over three citiesExecutive, legislative and judicial functions sit in Pretoria, Cape Town and Bloemfontein

Tags: mining, south-africa, depth

Mponeng is the deepest working mine in the world: the short answers

Where does this come from, and can I check it?: Its workings reach about 4 kilometres below the surface in South Africa. The figure is taken from Britannica, which is linked in full on this page. Every fact on Mondo Knows names its source rather than repeating an unsourced claim.
Is this really a records & extremes fact?: Yes. It sits on the Records & Extremes shelf, one of 2,600 sourced facts grouped into space, animals, the human body, history, science and more. Category pages collect every fact in the same field.
What else can I read about it?: The links under the fact point to a quiz, game, puzzle or calculator on the same subject, and the shelf below shows related facts. The wording here is original, and quoted phrases are marked as quotations.