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With temperatures that can drop to nearly -50°C, these mines offer some of the most challenging working conditions in the world. All but one of the mines on this list are located in Russia’s Sakha Republic — a region in the country’s extreme north containing vast diamond, coal, and gold resources.
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#1 Sarylakh
Minimum average temperature: -46.7°C
Location: Russia
Owner: Zvezda & Sarylakh
Type: Open-pit antimony and gold mine
#2 Sentachan
Minimum average temperature: -45.8°C
Location: Russia
Owner: Zvezda & Sarylakh
Type: Underground antimony and gold mine
#3 Badran
Minimum average temperature: -44.6°C
Location: Russia
Owner: OME Zapadnaya
Type: Underground gold mine
#4 Kangalassky
Minimum average temperature: -41.7°C
Location: Russia
Owner: Yakutugol
Type: Open-pit coal mine
#5 Dzhebariki-Khaya
Minimum average temperature: -40.7°C
Location: Russia
Owner: Yakutugol
Type: Underground coal mine
#6 Elga
Minimum average temperature: -40.5°C
Location: Russia
Owner: Elgaugol OOO
Type: Open-pit coal mine
#7 Perspektivny
Minimum average temperature: -39.6°C
Location: Russia
Owner: Susumanzoloto
Type: Open-pit coal mine
#8 Aikhal
Minimum average temperature: -39.5°C
Location: Russia
Owner: Alrosa
Type: Open-pit diamond mine
#9 Udachny
Minimum average temperature: -39.1°C
Location: Russia
Owner: Alrosa
Type: Open-pit diamond mine
#10 Nizhne-Lenskoye
Minimum average temperature: -38.8°C
Location: Russia
Owner: Alrosa
Type: Placer diamond mine
3 Comments
Mark Harder
I can understand why open-pit mines would be the coldest of the coldest: How colder air sinks into the hole, protected from winds that carry it away. But underground mines? Air in underground spaces tends to equilibrate thermally with the surrounding rock, which buffers the lowest and highest temperatures found at the surface. Air in caves, for instance, is nearly constant in temperature year-round. Are the temperatures given here those on the surface surroundings, not in the mines themselves? If I worked in one of these mines, I think I would very much prefer working underground than in the very bottom of a pit hundreds of feet deep. In winter, at least. Summers, the cool might kill mosquitos…
Aleksandr Shurilov
Yes, I agree, it highly unlikely such a deep frost underground. As for the mosquitoes – they are
plenty in Siberia, be sure. Not in the mines of course.
Cantrash
The “minimum average temperature” definition used by the author is critical to understanding the climate around these mines. Noramally the definition of “minimum average temperature” is an average of the coldest daily average temperatures over a period of years. So your only getting these temperatures on the coldest day of the year. The rest of the year would have periods that are a lot warmer – like the Yukon or Northwest Territories in Canada.