"These sands are mineralized, " says Andrew Denton, general manager of mining at RBM.

CNN: South Africa dune mining whips up sandstorm

Walter Herrera, quality control and risk manager for the Chilean mining company GeoTech, has said his company was bringing a specialized device typically used for boring water holes to the mine.

CNN: New video shows trapped Chilean miners in good spirits

Walter Herrera, quality control and risk manager for the Chilean mining company GeoTech, has said his company was bringing a specialized device -- a Scram T-130 drill typically used for boring water holes -- to the San Jose mine.

CNN: Drilling to reach Chile miners yet to begin

"We looked at autonomous operations of equipment as being the same type of technology that could be used on the moon as well as in a mining application, " said Michele Blubaugh, manager of Intelligence Technology Services at Caterpillar.

WSJ: Exhausting the Earth's Resources? Not So Fast

Joel Smolen, hedge fund manager at Axion Capital in San Rafael, says hard assets like gold, silver and equities of mining and metals companies in countries like Australia and Brazil are the places to be following the U.S. credit downgrade.

FORBES: Hard Assets The Place To Be Following U.S. Credit Downgrade

The job of mine manager at the South African company, for instance, used to include responsibilities that went far beyond mining: the managers had to make decisions about such matters as working with local communities, managing hospitals and overseeing worker accommodations.

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