The Kupol gold mine is truly desolate. Located in the Chukotka region of northeast Russia, it's more than 100 miles from the nearest town and accessible only by air or a temporary 200-mile ice road between November and April. Getting there is tough, and staying there is even tougher. It is a cold, brutal place, and photographer Elena Chernyshova spent two weeks there in February 2014 for National Geographic Russia.

Russia's got a spotty history with gold mining, an industry that often gave rise to hellish conditions and notorious gulags. But Kupol is thoroughly modern, a $700 million operation that the Canadian company Kinross Gold bought in 2007, two years after construction started. The mine, which took five years to build, employs more than 1,000 people from as far away as Brazil. It's tough work, with employees working 12-hour days for two months straight before taking two months off.

Kupol and Dvoinoye, another nearby mine Kinross owns, produced more than 23 tons of gold in 2014.

Chernyshova and reporter Andrey Jouravlev woke at 6 am every day to tour various parts of the sprawling operation. They spent time with employees relaxing in their quarters, descended nearly a quarter-mile underground to watch great machines pull gold from the earth, and visited the immense machines that grind tons of ore and smelt gold. "You see these huge machines that are drilling and taking minerals, it’s all so beautiful and impressive," Chernyshova says.

Chernyshova found the attitude of the workers to be exceedingly positive. Many said they love their jobs, and the campus is surprisingly comfy given the remote location and barren landscape. A 3,000-foot heated tunnel called the Arctic Corridor links the camp to the mine so employees can return "home" without experiencing the frigid temperatures outdoors. When they aren't working, sleeping, or eating, employees can enjoy a hydroponic garden, gym, library and café. They while away their down-time reading, playing basketball, working out, and, of course, watching TV. Some even play live music at the campus's Solstice Café.

The photographer spent plenty of time outside, citing her most challenging moment as when she took a photo of the gold factory in green polar light. She waited in the cold, bundled up for nearly three hours until she got exactly the shot she wanted. Temperatures can plummet to -58 Fahrenheit, so Chernyshova had two cameras for shooting outside and inside and plenty of batteries because low temperature sucks power. It was a challenging assignment, but worth the trouble. "When you are passionate, you don’t feel cold," she says.