Location from Red Rising by Pierce Brown
The helium-3 mining tunnels beneath Mars where Red clans live and die in darkness, believing they are terraforming a dead world. The foundation of the Society's greatest lie.
The Deep Mines are where the lie lives. Millions of Reds across hundreds of mining colonies spend their lives drilling helium-3 from Martian rock, believing they are the vanguard of terraforming — that their sacrifice will make Mars livable for their children's children. The truth — that Mars has been livable for centuries, that the Reds are slaves mining fuel for a civilization that does not acknowledge their existence — is the Society's foundational crime. Life in the mines is measured in quotas and dust counts. Clans compete for the Laurel — extra rations for the most productive mine. Marriages are arranged to maximize labor output. Children learn to work the drills before they learn to read. The average Red miner's lifespan is shorter than a Gold's adolescence. When Darrow learned the truth and left the mines, he carried them with him — the darkness, the dust, the anger. The Deep Mines are not just where he came from. They are why he fights.
An endless warren of rough-hewn tunnels, drill chambers, and mineral veins deep beneath the Martian crust. Headlamps are the only light. The air is thick with dust that coats lungs and shortens lives. Massive helium-3 drill rigs dominate the larger caverns. The walls vibrate with the constant grinding of extraction machinery.
Also known as: The Deep Mines, the mines, the helium-3 mines, the tunnels