A mine worker is seen outside “The Progreso” gold mine near La Paz, November 13, 2014. According to local media, the president of the Central Bank of Bolivia (BCB) Marcelo Zabalaga said on Thursday that the falling price of oil and minerals in the international market will not affect the national economy. (Photo by David Mercado/Reuters)

A rat being trained by the Cambodian Mine Action Centre (CMAC) is pictured on an inactive landmine field in Siem Reap province July 9, 2015. Gambian pouched rats were deployed to Cambodia from Tanzania in April by a Belgian non-profit organization, APOPO, to help clear mines. They've been trained since they were 4 weeks old. Cambodia is still littered with landmines after emerging from decades of civil war, including the 1970s Khmer Rough “Killing Fields” genocide, leaving it with one of the world's highest disability rates. APOPO has used the rodents for mine-clearing projects in several countries, including Angola, Mozambique, Thailand, Laos, and Vietnam. (Photo by Samrang Pring/Reuters)

Miners search for jade stones at a mine dump at a Hpakant jade mine in Kachin state, Myanmar November 25, 2015. Using heavy earth-excavators and explosives, miners have been tearing into Myanmar's northern hills in recent months, in a rush to excavate more jade from the world's richest deposits of the gemstone before a new government takes office next year. (Photo by Soe Zeya Tun/Reuters)

Two workers shovel mud from the river as they look for gold on March 25, 2014 in Lampang, Thailand. Thai villagers from Wang Nuea, North of Thailand, look for gold in the river every year during the drought season. They are able to make an average around USD 15 per day, however two years ago they reached USD 200 in one day due to the river level dropping so much. The workers begin to search for gold at 10 AM and work until sunset, often working second jobs in the day in order to survive. (Photo by Borja Sanchez-Trillo/Getty Images)

City buildings stand beyond the giant excavated hole left by the Mir mine, a former open pit diamond mine, in Mirny, Russia, on Tuesday, November 12, 2013. OAO Alrosa, the world's largest diamond producer, raised about $1.3 billion in an oversubscribed share sale from investors including Oppenheimer Funds Inc. and Lazard Ltd.'s asset-management unit, First Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov said. (Photo by Andrey Rudakov/Bloomberg)

These sand-swept images show the ghostly remains of what was once a mineral-rich mining community. In its heyday, the town of Kolmanskop, Namibia, was home to about 700 families. Now all that remains are empty homes filled with sand, while cast-off items such as bathtubs are scattered about the surrounding area. Over time, the sand of the stunning dunes that encircle the town of Kolmanskop has been blown towards the abandoned residences, coating everything from streets to the interiors of houses and workshops. Here: Kolmankop, an abandoned mining town in Namibia. (Photo by David Ogden/Caters News)

7 year old Soni has a basket of coal lifted onto her head by her mother, 28 year old Savita, after having scavenged coal illegally from an open-cast coal mine in the village of Bokapahari on February 08, 2012 near to Jharia, India. (Photo by Daniel Berehulak /Getty Images)

A worker carries a bag of salt after collecting it from a pond at the Maras mines in Cuzco December 3, 2014. Salt has been obtained in Maras since pre-Incan times by evaporating highly salty local subterranean stream water. The water is intricately channelled through constructions, flowing gradually down onto several hundred ancient terraced ponds. From each pond, a local member of the mine cooperative can produce 150 to 200 kilos per month which can be sold in the markets at $0.34 per kilogram, according to miners. (Photo by Enrique Castro-Mendivil/Reuters)