I could’ve written another boring announcement about Sunset Rising being on sale for 99 cents at all ebook retailers, but I wanted to share where I found the inspiration for the Pit: the Mponeng Gold Mine (AngloGold Ashanti).

For anyone who thought mining 3 miles underground was purely science fiction, think again. At 2.5 miles below the surface, the Mponeng gold mine in South Africa is the deepest mine on earth, and its getting deeper everyday. Once the largest gold producer in the world, producing roughly 64% of the world’s supply, South Africa now accounts for only about 6%. That’s because the 30 inch wide seam of gold they’ve been mining is running out. However, a new seam has been located just over 3 miles below ground, and they’re blasting their way toward it.

At 2.5 miles, it’s already hellishly hot. Rock face and water temperatures are around 151 degrees fahrenheit (that’s 66 degrees celsius for us Canadians), and working at that depth would be intolerable except for the ice slurry and huge fans the mining company uses to cool the air to a more acceptable 86 degrees fahrenheit (30 celsius). Approximately 4000 employed miners descend to work in the mine everyday; and then there are the Ghost miners …

Ghost miners are people who illegally enter Mponeng and mine the gold. Quite often ghost miners are part of a crime syndicate or gang and are helped into the mines by legal employees. So why are they called ghost miners?  Because getting through security to enter and exit the mine isn’t easy. Consequently, anyone gaining entrance illegally will stay for a prolonged period of time and, without sun, his/her skin turns grey. I say “anyone” because entire families have been known to go down into the mine as well as prostitutes.

Starvation and desperation can be powerful motivators. Illegal mining is (quite literally) a lucrative underground economy for South Africans, where 20.5% of the population live in extreme poverty and 45.5% live in moderate poverty conditions. While ghost miners benefit from mining gold, employed miners benefit by supplying food and other necessities to them at inflated prices. It’s a subterranean world with its own economy.

So, there you have it. A real life Pit.