Shortlisted: The Life: A narrow strip, Río Tinto, Huelva, Spain. A narrow strip of road divides ochre-coloured and fresh waters. Trees wait on the fresh side of the road opposite the toxic waters of a nearby mine reservoir. (Photo by Roberto Bueno/CIWEM Environmental Photographer of the Year 2021)

People leave a camp after a Peruvian police operation to destroy illegal gold mining camps in La Pampa, in the southern Amazon region of Madre de Dios, Peru August 11, 2015. Picture taken August 11, 2015. (Photo by Sebastian Castaneda/Reuters)

Poisoned River. Abstract Winner. A detailed photograph of a stream filled with poison. “Poisoned Beauty” is a personal project that tells the story of the natural disaster in the Apuseni Mountains in Transylvania, which was a result of chemical waste generated by copper and gold mining, but in a beautifully abstract way. (Photo by Gheorghe Popa/Drone Photography Awards 2021)

Steam comes out of the chimneys of the coal-fired power station Neurath near the Garzweiler open-cast coal mine in Luetzerath, Germany, Monday, October 25, 2021. The climate change conference COP26 will start next Sunday in Glasgow, Scotland. (Photo by Michael Probst/AP Photo)

Wigan Town center came alive with Hundreds of Revellers dressing up in fancy dress on December 26, 2018. Revellers in fancy dress braved the cold weather in Wigan, a town in Greater Manchester, England for the town's strangest holiday tradition – the Boxing Day dress up. (Photo by Dave Nelson/The Sun)

Ismail Mustafa, seen in 2007. “I was collecting mushrooms on the hill near here. I didn’t see the mine. There was a huge explosion. When I woke up I saw that both my legs were gone; I thought my life was over. My brother and another guy were with me. They made a stretcher from sticks and tied it together with clothing. It took two hours to get off the mountain. ‘My daughter has also been injured. She found a shell and brought it into the house and put it on the fire. She didn’t know what she was doing at the time – she was only three. She is blind and has lost an arm”. (Photo by Sean Sutton for the Mines Advisory Group/The Guardian)

A photographer has captured these eerie images showing the scale of some of Britain's deepest darkest wonders. Mike Deere, from Reading, heads to daunting locations such as abandoned mine shafts, miles of sewer tunnels that snake underneath London and even disused cooling towers. Photo: This incredible picture was taken at the Box Freestone Mine, in Wiltshire. Mike revealed that even experienced map readers would struggle to navigate their way around the seemingly endless tunnels that he and his friends visit. (Photo by Mike Deere/Caters News)

38 year old Prabhat Sinha, from Assam, carries a load of coal weighing 60kg's, supported by a head-strap, as he ascends the staircase of a coal mine on April 16, 2011 near the village of Khliehriat, in the district of Jaintia Hills, India. (Photo by Daniel Berehulak/Getty Images)