mining

• Settlements develop where valuable minerals are found, as jobs are created in the mining industry
• It is not just dormant and extinct volcanoes that are mined, but also active volcanoes.
• Kawah Ijen is an active volcano in East Java, Indonesia. Its crater is one of the biggest sulphuric lakes in the world
• Sulphur is sold, for example, to bleach sugar, make matches, medicines and fertiliser.
• However, mining in active volcanoes is dangerous:

  • Miners can afford little protective clothing.
  • Hydrogen sulphide and sulphur dioxide gases burn their eyes and throat and cause respiratory diseases.
  • In the last 40 years, 74 miners have died from the fumes.
  • Loads of sulphur weighing100 kilograms are carried up and down the rocky and slippery mountain paths.
• Nevertheless, miners can earn an average of six dollars per day (morethan on a coffee plantation), so miners continue to live and work in these dangerous areas.