As if the snow and the cold and the dark weren’t bad enough, a coyote sneaked into the cooking tent and chewed through the camp’s electrics. It blew the fuse on the fridge-freezer and ruined months’ worth of food. The three geologists who were living in the camp, just off the Dempster Highway, an ice road into Canada’s Northwest Territories, had to get a new generator. That meant a week-long round trip to the nearest town, Whitehorse, 900 kilometres away.

Hunting for Arctic minerals is rough, risky work. Any slip with heavy machinery, and medical help may be a three-hour flight away, on a plane that can’t take off in a blizzard. It is also lonely. Nathan, one of the three geologists, works 28 days at a stretch studying a zinc deposit. Lack of light saps the spirits. In November, when The Economist visited, the camp was snatching three hours of watery sun a day. “I guess there aren’t many guys who would like it,” says Nathan.

The Economist