Every winter, an ice road is laid across 400 km of tundra to carry supplies to one of the world's most isolated gold mines.
There is no other way for heavy machinery to reach Kupol, the €495 million Arctic mine behind a resurgence in Russian gold production after five straight years of decline.
"It's one of the harshest climates I've worked in, and I've worked in the Atacama desert in Chile and at 15,000 feet in Indonesia," said Patrick Dougherty, general manager at Kupol.
"But I don't get to pick where the gold is."
Only South Africa holds more gold than Russia, but Moscow's fragmented industry has struggled to access vast reserves in its inhospitable Far East. The region was first mined in the 1930s by prisoners of the Gulags set up by Soviet leader Josef Stalin.
Russia is the world's biggest energy supplier, but falling prices and reduced demand have cut income from natural resources to about eight per cent of its gross domestic product in the first quarter of this year, from nearly 11 per cent a year ago.
Gold, on the other hand, has been helped by recession.
Its safe-haven appeal has shielded it from a demand slump that shredded other commodity prices, lifting it by 10 per cent this year to keep it within striking distance of a record price of €728 an ounce set in March 2008.
Chukotka, a region revived in the last eight years by the €1.7 billion investment of Chelsea soccer club owner Roman Abramovich, produced a fifth of Russia's gold in the first half of this year. Gold is the region's passport to growth after Abramovich quit as governor last July. Russia ranked fifth among the world's gold miners last year, between Australia and Peru, with an eight per cent share of output. Production rose 13 per cent last year, the first increase in six years, and jumped another 25 per cent in the first half of this year.
"This was solely due to the commissioning of Kupol," said Olga Okuneva, mining analyst at Deutsche Bank in Moscow. "If other large projects in the Far East start producing gold, this will be a major growth driver for the Russian gold industry."
Kupol - meaning dome in Russian - is named after a rounded outcrop of rock that juts skyward from the tundra in central Chukotka, over 200 km from the nearest settlement.
Kinross Gold Corp, the Canadian miner which owns 75 per cent of Kupol, is unusual among foreign investors for holding a majority share in a major Russian mineral deposit.
About 1,400 jobs are related directly to Kupol, and Chukotka's population totals around 50,000. Miners and catering staff spend four weeks on site and four weeks off, earning an average monthly wage of 50,000 roubles, 25 per cent above the regional average.
In winter, miners walk the purpose-built Arctic Corridor - an enclosed, 900-metre tunnel from camp to mine - to avoid temperatures that drop more than 50 degrees Celsius below zero.
About 60 per cent of Kupol's gold is mined underground.
Alcohol is banned. Miners pass their time playing pool, in the gym or watching television. Popcorn is a popular snack, while eight tonnes of reindeer meat was served up last year.