Harvesting the roots of Earth

The Ijen volcano is a beautiful natural place. Due to its volcanic activity, it emanates sulphur gases that filter to the surface where, when in contact with the atmosphere, they burn creating flames of a beautiful blue colour. There are miners who work in the crater of the volcano in very hard conditions to obtain sulphur. They must walk about 1000 meters in altitude each day to reach the area of sulphur extraction. Once there, they work exposed to flames and toxic gases without any protection. They often work 7 days a week for more than 12 hours a day to extract about 200 kg of sulphur per day. They receive around 6 cents of euro per Kg of sulphur. Work begins at night. At the base of the volcano they take a trolley that they drag to the top, overcoming more than 500 meters of altitude. From there they carry baskets down the steep slope that leads to the sulphur extraction area (trolleys can’t go through that narrow trail). Once they have managed to collect about 80 kg of sulphur, they begin the hard climb of 300 meters of altitude loaded with 80kg. They repeat this process several times until they can fill the trolley with which they descend back to the base of the volcano. Some workers repeat this process numerous times a day. None of them has any kind of medical insurance that covers sickness. Many of them have serious respiratory problems.