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In the big open pits, a human chain moves the dirt(ore) up to the top by way of a human chain, with shovels. About as labor intensive as it gets.
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Sebastion Salgado's Workers has quite a few photographs that would make that seem like a walk in the park.
From a Brazilian gold mine. The workers "rent" a meter square parcel of landand dig straight down. They then add their pail of mud to a larger lot which is then sifted for gold. The total pay out is prorated among the others in your lot. e.g. if you bring up 20 pails and the guy next to you brings up 15 pails you get shares proportional to your input of mud. It doesn't matter if your pails were the ones with all the gold, you are part of a pool.
The images are truly stupendous and this tiny screen shot barely shows what is happening.