Toughest Jobs in the World: Cleaning Industrial Plant, Diamond & Gold Mine | Free Documentary

cinders ashes and clay whoever has to clean here has to give it all they got whether with water pressure or dynamite the dirts got to go the scope our lignite powered fire station near Halle transforms coal into energy enough to supply about two million households with electricity for this purpose the power plant runs 365 days a year 24 hours a day up to 20 coal trains a day supply the necessary fuel about 20,000 tons of living it are processed here every day and these are the men that have to keep the plant running Mirko Val Val and Frank hold novotná 'qs maintenance team works here at the power plant all year round every day the first job in the morning already requires heavy equipment the mega vacuum cleaner comes into action Mirko Volkov is almost a little proud of this machine with its 7.8 inch pipe diameter his ally in the fight against dirt yeah basically that's what it is an oversized vacuum cleaner it's capable of sucking up eight thousand cubic meters of air volume per minute and you're able to fit some pretty big things through the pipe as well for example we can easily Hoover up a brick that's about three hundred and thirty feet away for this cleaning job the water treatment facilities various processes within the plants require water which gets cleaned around the clock in one of the adjacent buildings normally the leftover dirt from this process is taken away automatically in this case the leftover dirt is a clay-like mass it's collected in a press turned into a so-called filter cake and dropped into a sludge bunker and here lies the problem the conveyor belt in the bunker broke down last night by morning the sludge has already spread all the way to the door about eight cubic meters of dirt are waiting for the cleaning team pie time to activate the mega vacuum cleaner the heavy sticky mass is no problem for this machine's enormous suction power [Applause] [Music] now we have to vacuum up the filter cake as quickly as possibly so that the maintenance department can get in here do the repairs and put the plant back into operation after a good four hours of sweaty work the job's finally done thanks to the enormous suction power the bunker has been completely cleared but the next job is already waiting time for some explosive cleaning there's an emergency in the boiler house next door where coal is burned ashes are produced in a power plant this happens in the boiler normally the ashes fall down through a kind of funnel and can be removed but sometimes the funnel gets clogged and that's exactly what's threatening to happen at the bottom of the boiler once ash is lying on the grate as a large lump of slack it's possible that the narrow shaft is simply too small and that's why Frank calm novotná canned his team now really have to go for it not a nice place to work hot dangerous and unbearably loud our customers commissioned us to blast away the slag we see back there in the Upper Great area the issue is that this lump weighs about two and a half to three tons if this monstrosity blocks the shaft part of the power station will have to be shut down we can prevent this by setting up a very special explosive charge for this lump and that's what we're going to do the whole thing must be done while the plant is still running but putting explosives into a fire at over 750 degrees Fahrenheit this really requires a specialist the explosive in this case is ordinary dynamite so there must be some trick we're blasting here in an environment of 700 to 1000 degrees Fahrenheit which really is something special so we insulate our charge and cool our ignition wire what the insulation actually is well that's a trade secret the finished construction resists the extreme heat for four minutes in this time the explosives have to be put into position and everyone has to retrieve to say the load is hunter the Lance with which the explosive is then auctioned the sensitive ignition cable runs through the Lance this is the water cooling for our ignition cable the Lance itself is flooded inside safety measures are an absolute must given the extreme heat in the boiler thermal suits protect against possible flying sparks but will this help if the explosives detonate too early until ignition it must not get too hot so cold water is constantly pumping through the Lance from behind but there's always a residual risk the clock is ticking the explosives are exposed to the heat there are only four minutes left at most the casing around the explosive burns after only a few seconds but the charge has already been fixed onto the chunk of slack the Lance is secured and now take cover everyone the area around the boiler is now secured ignition [Music] a huge fireball that was the blast actually successful for us the result is hardly visible but the boss is satisfied in a very very short time whilst focusing on a high level of personal safety we've eliminated this slag block and the conveyor can keep running the boiler doesn't have to be shut down operations can carry on normally at full capacity the layer of slag is gone operation can continue but the next job is already waiting a job involving real pressure water pressure cleaning when everything is working in the boiler the ashes are transported away on conveyor belts and end up in a silo this has to be serviced regularly and it has to be clean [Music] not easy because the ashes which are hot at the beginning have to be extinguished with water before transport hence the name wet ash silo and as you would expect it's really dirty in there no one can fit through this dark and narrow shaft for cleaning so only a special tool can help that thing there here we have a tank washing head the nozzles are attached to the washing arm here this washing arm is then powered by the immense water pressure and it can be moved in any direction and these two rotational axes interact to create an image of complete chaos but by doing so it really cleans every point in the container 26 gallons are pumped through each jet per minute at a pressure of just under 1,450 psi the water shoots out of the tank washing head about 10 times the pressure of a standard high-pressure jet washer from a DIY store not only is it going to be wet but it's also going to be quite loud at such high pressure nothing and nobody should be in the immediate vicinity there's the risk of personal injury and camera equipment can be destroyed well then here we go water on [Music] the water shoots out of every opening in the silo after only 10 minutes the whole thing is over the cleaning water flows down from the empty silo successfully cleaned the silo interior looks clean and shiny and that's the end of the day for the cleaning team the entire power plant is squeaky clean with the help of mega high-pressure extreme suction power and Big Bang's cleaning can be really fun how much money is now on the table yeah $5,000,000 $5,000,000 just on this table [Music] Siberia the middle of nowhere in it the city of many and its existence has one reason only the mere diamond mine one of the largest ones in the world almost forty thousand people live in many in the midst of snow ice and - fifty degrees whether it's hard to imagine but this is the epicenter of the Russian diamond mining industry and we want to see these diamonds after more than a year of research we finally got filming permit from the world's second largest diamonds producer al Rosa but first we are try to be put off unfortunately we can't go down to the mere mine just yet but there's a view of it from the platform is that ok let's go the morning shift is still working underground and we are not to interrupt them but the view is worth the waiting well this is insane enormous unsurprisingly this is one of the deepest man-made holds on earth it's one thousand seven hundred twenty two feet deep on top of that its diameter is an astonishing three thousand nine hundred feet wide the mere diamond mine is so big that you can even see the crater from space but opencast mining has gone dormant for the past 15 years the mine has been so overworked that its wards are at risk of caving in a grave danger for workers but underground mining continues the entrance is right around the corner and thanks to a special permit we can see it from up close but underground mining isn't without its dangers that's why we have to receive safety training first [Music] so Moscow said this is a so-called self rescuer the most important thing to carry on the ground it's used when there's an accident involving a gas or smoke leak during seas the breathing apparatus provides around 50 minutes of oxygen and we even have to sign a waiver where if something happens it's our own responsibility but we came to see diamonds and in order to do so we have to go into the mine and our companion is the shift manager sagaie gamble and the boss is to show us how business is done around here hurry up we've gotta move Tookie Tookie I think it means we have to move faster correct these pitman have to stick to a strict schedule many of them are day workers if they miss the lift down into the mine they lose their wages there's only one person for whom Sergey still has some time David my wife the MIR mine has run like a family business and has been so for 60 years now it's finally time to head out most equipments such as the lift dates back to the Soviet era but it still carries the miners deep down three times per day we don't know exactly how deep and that's cause for a confusion no no hey cameraman andreas come back here we won't be there for a bit we have to keep going even deeper a total of three thousand two hundred eighty feet into the ground it's easy to get lost the diamond mine resembles a maze and it's the deepest one in the world at three thousand nine hundred feet underground we were expecting extreme heat and stuffy air underground but it's not nearly as bad surprisingly what's been really Pleasant has been the fact that we're at around 60 degrees in here so about 70 degrees warmer than outside which really makes a difference escaping the icy cold try Berrian weather it's just one of the many reasons why sergey loves working underground in many i've always found a romantic side to this place and this job I've always been very enthusiastic because this means more than just good money to me above all the contact with my colleagues is important to me I'm very happy to still have this job but it's a very dangerous job surprise fires and smoke in narrow aisles are not uncommon and sometimes even a simple bump on the ground is a risk look out I warned you [Laughter] fortunately after this little stunt we no longer need to move by foot because Pittman like Sergei also have a company car he drives us to the site three-quarters of a mile away a huge machine is waiting for Sergei they're the most coveted object a massive stone wall Sergei is so determined it is clear to us that our treasure is hiding from us behind the wall we've no idea whether there are diamonds behind it or not we're not geologists we're just the workers who dig the rocks out from the wall we get clear instructions and there we drill but there are diamonds everywhere even if we don't know exactly where we'll manage to find them that's because underneath money there's a gigantic deposit of the volcanic mineral kimberlite and in a very rare composition as well they're teeming with diamonds what is special about it is that not every kimberlite contains valuable minerals but in many an extraordinary amount of them do Serge's job is to mine the rocks out of the wall with this monster these steel milling machines have been specially developed for mining being able of crushing concrete even all that is missing is the truck that collects the diamonds Hey be careful where you go do you want everything to collapse above us incredible unbelievable but after a little drama now we can get started even if it looks brutal the mining doesn't hurt the diamonds they're the hardest mineral in the world and are close to being indestructible but there's still no trace of the precious stones oh it's extremely dusty in here a dirty business but diamonds are not just to craft fine pieces of jewelry due to their third eNOS they're particularly popular in industry ample in drilling systems or high-tech tools but so far no [Music] okay keep this other diamonds inside right now there are some in there yes but I can't see anything just a stone there are no diamonds maybe not particularly expensive ones but there are definitely some in there nope okay well it was worth a try the stones are on their last journey underground with a lorry into the collection bunker around 400 tons of rock can be found here every day ready to be transported to the surface where exactly more of that later [Music] for Sergei and his crew today's job is done everything down here is still an adventure to me I love my job the atmosphere what I like most is the comradeship and above all my after work beer that's what you get after eight hours of hard work at 8 p.m. Sergei and the other Pittman head back to the surface and so ends our first day in merely the next morning as an exception we are allowed to witness an explosion underground they're prohibited that's why we are headed to an active opencast mine since there are no scheduled flights to many we hit you right with a company's own airline to nearby about 250 miles away here we meet production manager dmitriy shook wings just as it was the case underground everything has to be done really fast above-ground we're running a bit behind to be honest we're actually very late I hope we can still make it why is he in a rush the blasting master has to struggle with adverse conditions in the Siberian winter he fears the detonator could freeze at minus 25 degrees therefore we have to go go go [Music] it seems to have worked but it's all too quiet now the stones have been loosened the work can begin again half an hour later the first trucks drive into the heart of the mine in contrast to mere kimberlite can still be mined above-ground here but how do the stones become diamonds now the secret may be revealed the final production takes place here the first impression is that it's gigantic all stones from both the upper and lower quarries are collected in one place dimitri shows us what happens here the stones are delivered and then fall through this shaft from the outside the machine down there stomps and crushes them since many are still quite big boulders no diamond in the world is the size of a rock that's why the stones are gently grounded into smaller and smaller proportions little by little they'll be brought down to your diameter of about five inches the widest the diamond can be and large enough to fit through these holes but we still can't see them this could change now however in any case something very very important does happen here warning signs double doors and suddenly a lot more security personnel we seem to be very close to our goal at last behind this store we expect to find what we've been looking for all this time but all we see are more dirty stones it's a kind of x-ray machine in connection with a special concentrate here we filter out the diamonds but you're not allowed to show that the machine scans the stones and simply sorts out the ones without diamonds the ones with value end up in a sulfuric chemical bath the mixture is top secret but it's used to separate the kimberlite volcanic stone from the diamonds but these are just stones unfortunately we can't see the complete procedure we were expecting diamonds and all we got was a secrecy but we're come here you have to hand over your passport we enter a rather unremarkable room what is striking is that only women sit here and they're handling what we've been looking for all this time diamonds a whole bunch of them too so many that we can't count them all they're in their raw form since they won't be smoothened for a while these women have an especially important task under the guidance of the only man present here we determine the price of the diamonds in order to do this we sort them by size and weight the weight is measured per carat one carat is 0.007 ounces but these stones are much heavier that sparked our interest why not Oh was it the diamond could fall and be damaged who pays for that afterwards only the employees are allowed to handle them they earn around $1,100 per month which is good money here but a little something extra in the pocket would be tempting no I would never take a stone home the reason diamonds are cataloged before being transported of only one of them goes missing then everyone has to pay for it and that can be really expensive how much money is now on the table here five million dollars in addition to size and weight the diamonds so-called purity also affects this price the employees sought the rough diamonds according to 16 color categories the following applies the pure for example the clearance color the more valuable particularly dark diamonds cost around ten dollars per carat nothing compared to those that are almost as see-through as glass and although there is more money lying around here than women will ever earn in their lives they act normal around it it's not special for us I've developed a kind of immunity to the huge amount of money I work with every day to me personally these are only stones cookie pigeon usually premiered one or sooner spoken quite valuable stones though the demand in Russia is so great that they can only be sold domestically and there is plenty more of it here one day a month that can change everything but to get there there's a hard and sweaty road without any pay we all depend on the gold we mined I have six children to feed but it's not only the risk the time so is the potential prize they can win a carefree life when I started in the mine I never thought I'd own a whole farm later two separate realities that depend on each other we visited Peru specifically the mining town larin kannada what exactly is behind this chance based arrangement to reach the highest city in the world our team has to surpass the 5,300 meter mark which is about as high as the base camp of Mount Everest up here there is low air pressure our team literally runs out of air for safety reasons we have to acclimatize ourselves halfway up for two days so our bodies gradually get used to the new circumstances but really slowly it's getting harder and harder to breathe regardless of the fact I haven't really made any effort and I'm simply sitting in a car the higher we go the more surreal the landscape becomes the temperature drops to minus-5 degrees and there it is rinconada a place of hope the workers who come here hope to find happiness within a month today is the so called pay day which means they've worked for 30 days without pay but they can keep what they find in the gold mine today their only hope of a better future then the road ends we can only walk from this point on the air pressure is now so low that doctors actually recommend oxygen be supplied artificially the more you walk the more exhausting it becomes every step is a challenge for us the miners on the other hand I used to the thin air some have been waiting for the big break for decades like 46 year old Fortuna tour he's been working in the gold mine for 22 years his name means the lucky one but in the gold mine it still hasn't paid off for him just yet here he lives with a colleague his wife and two children live kilometers away from him in the rain forest no Amelia my family is very supportive of my work here we need the gold payday is my only chance to save some money and perhaps start a better life our dream is to move to a city someday maybe today is the day his life insurance his equipment he's made do for years with what little he's earned with the mining firm [Music] let's test the light really quick it works alright let's go to the line in this 8-hour shift he has the chance to change his life all the gold he finds today belongs to him and his family friend of mine rival once found a whole kilo of gold he bought several cars and the house with it he now lives a very good life and that's exactly what my dream is but I know that it's theoretically possible for all miners today it's payday it's all about a month's salary and everyone has only this one chance there's a lot to be earned in the historical business that is gold in total a hundred and fifty tons of gold were mined in Peru last year this makes Peru the largest gold exporter in South America almost two-thirds of the export earnings come from this region between 8,000 and 12,000 miners work in the mines a total of about 450 mining contractors offer jobs huge business at least for the employers the miners work in shifts covering three eight-hour shifts per day per cave portal motto searches with 30 to 50 workers for the big break his only help in the dark caves the weep light on his miner's helmet hey guys how are you at the beginning of each shift their most important ritual is to chew coca leaves it helps combat the symptoms of altitude sickness we have to chew these leaves to better withstand the hard work they give a strength and protect us stimulating coca leaves in Germany they would fall under the narcotics act here they are part of everyday life a dangerous everyday life in the mine the icy walls melt and turn into mud slides the safety precautions are of the lowest standard stay more cleaner fighting don't touch me where's the work process is simple with the motto on the stones get set go where under which stone the gold is hidden no one knows the only way to find out is to search every single Boulder with their bare hands for shiny marks and incidentally there are no theft controls on pay days theoretically everything is based on trust there is less and less gold in this mine and soon there may not be any left anymore so we have to work a little harder we would need new caves there's not much to find here we usually only find very little but we all depend on the gold I have six children to feed three girls and three boys the workers operating shifts fortunato and his colleagues hope to achieve what few have achieved before them we visit one of the lucky ones Han has been living with his family near Lake Titicaca for the past two years half a kilogram of gold has completely changed his life that's about ten thousand euros it took him six years in the meantime he's a master hull farm with its own livestock a car and enough space for his parents wife and child he is his own boss keeps everything he produces and lives in a safe area for Han this is hitting the jackpot Lanisha yeah yeah in the beginning I was just one of many I never thought that I would own a whole farm it used to be nothing but work and more work for me now life is much easier when an animal better party to repay a mystery when I found the gold I thought well what to do with it and in the end I could afford this property comprendo prevail in heaven since horn left the gold mining town Rinconada the 26 year old seldom visits although he's dreamed of the wealth he now possesses for so many years he looks back on his time in the mind with mixed feelings how does the monkey like up at all compared to the mind it's a paradise here but it was also sad to move here I eventually had to say goodbye to colleagues and friends we went through a lot together but my current life is much better tahn makes a living from dairy cattle the five cows and four sheep there is pride and joy this way he can offer his two-year-old daughter a good future in his eyes it's not just a question of luck above all else I would advise those who still work up there to save what they find a tree or no parrot key thing you can save up a small fortune little by little and start a new life if you're clever about it the mind can change everything just like he did for me yes six years plowing away most of the time without a guaranteed salary fahan the risky venture was worth it for tornado hopes for something similar for himself four hours later and still no success if he doesn't find anything in the next four hours his chance of a salary is over gold whether or not it actually is gold he can only find out later I'd rather pack it up now it's my whole monthly salary it better not be lost or left for anyone else to see yeah photo Nantou wants to find out how much gold he holds in his hands as soon as possible but he has to work on it elaborately first here in the gold preparation center he borrows the necessary tools did he get his big break how much is his lump of gold worth will this gold nugget change for tanatos life how much gold is in his discovery he still doesn't know to do so the miner has to work on it strenuously at the gold processing center [Music] the stone in which the gold is found has to be put in a mix of water and a cup of mercury this is how Fortin Otto separates the gold from the stone then he grinds everything with the big brick until it's liquid [Music] okay everyone here keeps to themselves we don't care about the others I don't want to distract myself miss buddy he still has no idea about the value of what he's found whether or not in the stone VAT under him there's a golden ticket because between him and his dream there's still plenty of hard work and the dangers of harming is health with mercury they look at the lesser ones I know that mercury is not good for your health you should actually wear gloves in modern gold processing plants there are safer processes but with the simple means of here gloves aren't standard equipment unfortunately fortunado takes the mixture of water mercury and gold to a sink since mercury and gold combine with each other and are heavier than water he can wash away everything else after wringing it all out there's a mixture of pure gold and mercury so much work for such a small nugget how much gold is in it for for tonight oh he'll find out in the next few minutes at the local gold dealers he pays 10 cents for the mercury that he used Wiley is on his most important task of the month he only thinks of his family we bump into the first of his colleagues after work apart from working in the gold mines there are no other jobs here the few dollars that they earn are wasted by many photo not oh definitely doesn't want that gold trade of Betty hopes for a good exchange rate she has the difficult task of delivering to the workers the most important news of the day was it all worth it not some miners find a good amount but I've rarely experienced this during my work here unique good luck for that how fortunate for tonnato was today he'll find out as soon as Betty heats the mixture to three hundred and sixty degrees Celsius the mercury evaporates and pure gold for Fortunato it's exactly 0.8 grams today about 20 euros after being converted his wage for a whole month that wasn't much today but I won't give up hope next time it'll definitely be more I can make up for this well goodbye photo natto is a bit disappointed however he can support his family for another month with 20 euros it's an unspectacular take but enough to try again next month his dream remains of one day finding a giant gold nugget that changes everything

Channel: Free Documentary

Views: 1,615,252

Keywords: Free Documentary, Documentaries, Full documentary, HD documentary, documentary - topic, documentary (tv genre), dangeorus jobs, toughest jobs, toughest jobs in the world, working in a gold mine, working in a diamond mine, diamond mine, gold mine, industrial cleaning, power plant, industrial power plant, power plant cleaning, gold mining, gold documentary, diamond documentary, power plant documentary

Id: 1ZRMUV7Smzo

Length: 40min 51sec (2451 seconds)

Published: Wed Apr 22 2020

Reddit Comments

[u/xelloskaczor]

Its appaling and disgusting that there is such underrepresentation of women in those jobs. We should make sure more of them do it.