User:Jhneely/Mponeng

Mponeng is a gold mine near Carltonville, South Africa that is now the deepest mine in the world. In early February 2009, Mponeng's owner, AngloGold Ashanti announced that the Below 120 deepening project had surpassed the 3,777 m record held by the neighboring Savuka mine since 1991.

Mponeng is home to an organism that is the only species known to be alone in its ecosystem. Desulforudis audaxviator is a bacterium, which lives in depths from 1.5 km to 3 km below the Earth's surface in the groundwater.

The name comes from a quotation from Jules Verne's novel Journey to the Center of the Earth. The hero, Professor Lidenbrock, finds a secret inscription in Latin that reads: Descende, audax viator, et terrestre centrum attinges (Descend, bold traveller, and you will attain the center of the Earth).[1]