This dump truck is moving through the Taryn gold mine, in the Oymyakon district of Russia’s far eastern Yakutia region, which claims to be the coldest continually inhabited settlement in the northern hemisphere. It gets so cold in winter that metal snaps. In winter, motorists keep their engines running at all times so that they do not seize up. But it is an area where separate companies GV Gold and Yantar are launching new gold mines. Reuters reports that GV Gold’s new plant will from this month start producing at a rate of 3 t of gold a year on a first phase investment of $113-million, with Yantar’s Khangalas plant scheduled to produce at a rate of up to 1 t/y from 2018, funded by alluvial gold proceeds. Depleting alluvial mining is giving way to hard-rock mining, which is less weather dependent.