A Hill Full of Holes

The hill above the village is full of holes.

The holes are dug by hand and they go straight down. From above they look like dark coins spread across the green slope. The people who work there say there are about two thousand of them. Next to every hole there is a rope, a wheel and a bucket.

Everything here is done by hand, and there is a good reason for that. Larimar breaks easily. It sits inside the old rock in small pockets. A machine would smash it. So the miners use picks and their own arms. The rock comes up in the bucket. The men go down on the rope. The only engines are small generators, for a light and for pushing air down a pipe, because some of these holes go more than sixty metres down.

The work is hard and it is dangerous. In twenty twenty two the mine was closed for a time after three miners died. Polly sits on the edge of a platform. A wet bucket comes up out of the dark. A man tips it out and starts to sort the stones with his fingers.