The Muruntau Open Pit.   A panoramic view of the 3.5 x 2.5 km Muruntau open pit, the lowest bench of which is now 510 m below the pre-mining surface.   To date some 700 Mt of ore has been removed.   The current mining removes around 250 000 tonnes per day of ore + waste, of which 80 000 tonnes is ore.   Photograph by Mike Porter