Deepest Mines in the World
Key Findings
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Mponeng Gold Mine leads in Depth below surface (kilometres) with 4.
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Average Depth below surface (kilometres): 3.45 · median: 3.37.
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Gap: Mponeng Gold Mine is 1.3× larger than Moab Khotsong mine.
About This Dataset
Deepest Mines in the World
Mine depth is limited less by digging than by heat and rock pressure: at these depths rock faces can reach 60°C and the surrounding stone stores enough stress to burst. This chart ranks the deepest mines in the world by depth below the surface in kilometres.
Analysis
Mponeng Gold Mine in South Africa is the deepest mine on earth at 4.0 kilometres below the surface. 9 of these 12 mines are in South Africa, and every one of them extracts gold - at this depth only a metal valuable enough to justify continuous cooling and kilometres of hoisting is worth extracting. The shallowest mine on this chart still reaches 3.052 kilometres, and the whole ranking spans just 0.95 kilometres from first to last, because rock temperature and pressure impose a practical ceiling that no operator has moved far past.
Data Insights
Numbers, trends & sources behind this chart
Methodology & source
- Data source
- Wikipedia - List of deepest mines
- Coverage
- 12 entities · 12 observations
- Measure
- Depth below surface (kilometres)
- Last updated
- 10 September 2026
- Compiled by
- The ANYSTAT team, from the source above
How the figures are calculated
- Values use the measure and unit named on this page. Consult the dataset description and cited source for coverage, definitions and any unit conversions. Displayed values may be rounded for readability.
- Entities are ranked highest-first on their value.
Data Sources & References
All external sources cited in this dataset
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