Miners From Hell

• Prize
  Gold in Editorial/Environmental
• Photographer
  Chin-Fa Tzeng

The scenery is from Mount Ijen in East Java, Indonesia, as beautiful as a fairyland. However, people climb into the crater daily and dig sulphur mines to earn living expenses. The locals call them miners from hell. Many young men risk their lives every day to mines in the crater without any protection measures. According to news reports, their average life span is no more than 30 years because they breathe poisonous gas daily. The miners carry 80 kilograms up and down several times daily from the bottom of the valley to the top. Their average income is only about 5 to 7 US dollars daily.