What chinese company would let workers work for only 6 hours.

I understand the reasoning behind this. More jobs. You employ twice as many workers vs. a 12 hour shift, which is the general norm. Many of these workers have farms to tend, and I recall ARU accomodating that with a week on week off arrangement, or something to that effect.

Remember, you're at the equator where the days are 12 hours long all year round and the sun comes up (and goes down) like thunder. I found that out the hard way hiking in the Guatamalan jungle - thought I had enough time to get back to camp and didn't bring a flashlight. All of a sudden, pitch black...LOL. So I guess part of the deal would be so underground workers can at least see some daylight. Of course you could manage that by having the shifts start earlier, but who wants to get up at 3 AM?

ebear