West O’okiep Mine, Okiep (1862 to the early 1970s)
Over 500m deep, 284,000 tonnes of copper extracted
Ever since we realized we could exploit our planet for its resources, we’ve been digging holes and just taking stuff. But of course, the holes are always much bigger than the total volume of stuff extracted from them. Ever wonder what it would look like if you put all the metal from one mine in one pile? Dillon Marsh did, and created the following series of images to illustrate this. This reminds us of this image from 2012, depicting the total volume of water on Earth in one spot.
Dillon’s project is called “For What It’s Worth”, and this is his description of it:
Whether they are active or long dormant, mines speak of a combination of sacrifice and gain. Their features are crude, unsightly scars on the landscape – unlikely feats of hard labour and specialised engineering, constructed to extract value from the earth but also exacting a price.
These images combine photography and computer generated elements in an effort to visualise the output of a mine. The CGI objects represent a scale model of the materials removed from each mine, a solid mass occupying a scene showing the ground from which it was extracted.
ubilee Mine, Concordia (1971 to 1973)
Over 100m deep, 6,500 tonnes of copper extracted
weefontein Mine, Concordia (1887 to 1904)
Over 100m deep, 38,747.7 tonnes of copper extracted
For What It’s Worth
Nababeep South Mine, Nababeep (1882 to 2000)
Over 500m deep, 302,791.65 tonnes of copper extracted
Blue Mine, Springbok (1852 to 1912)
3,535 tonnes of copper extracted
[ Dillon's Website ] VIA [ Gizmodo ]
The post This Is What The Metal Extracted From A Single Mine Looks Like appeared first on OhGizmo!.
