Located in a hostile Andean region 5,500 metres above sea level, Rinconada is the highest gold mine in the world, and is covered by a glacier. Despite the lack of oxygen and temperatures that fall to 20° celcius below zero, 20,000 people live in a shantytown in Rinconada. Their job is to dig through the ice and rock to extract the precious gold. The residents of Rinconada live without running water, sewers or heating in the midst of their own excrements and rubbish. Added to the deplorable sanitary situation, the wide spread use of mercury to separate the gold from the rock means that Rinconada is a time bomb threatening the ecology of the whole region.