Sulfur Miners of Ijen Plateau, Bondowoso, Indonesia
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The Life of an Indonesian Sulfur Miner
After climbing the mountain, go 2 hours down to the crater - take 1 hour to dig and cut the chunks of sulfur in the thick pungent smoke, load up 85 kg (carried by one person), climb up the rim for another 2 hours, followed by another 3 hours going down to the foot hill where they deliver the mineral. Allowing for numerous stops to adjust their breathing rate.
The journey to deliver the chunks of sulfur is carried out at about 2000-2500 m from sea level. Even though this is a tropical region, the temperature plunges to below zero in September.
For all of that, they get 300 rupiah per kilo, in total they may get twenty five thousand rupiah or USD $2.70/day.
These miners have never reached the age of 55, with many becoming physically unfit or ill in their early 40s. The sulfur smoke they breathe is lethal and only filtered by their sarong (a piece of local cloth).
