In certain periods, when discipline in the camp was exerted more aggressively and prisoners revolted more, violence and punishments also increased. In these cases, when several prisoners were punished at once, up to six or seven prisoners were put together in a single cell, who considering the very confined space of these cells, could not even sit or straighten their feet on the ground.

In area no. 2 of Spaç, pyrite extraction was performed, whereas in area no. 1 and no. 3, there was copper extraction.  In all areas, each group’s (made of one miner and two carters) daily target was the extraction of seven wagons of mineral, cleaning the front from inert material, reinforcing the whole area where they had worked, whereas the opening of holes was then done by a free miner, i.e., not imprisoned, as the process included the use of explosive devices which were never entrusted on a prisoner for security reasons.  This free miner would fill the holes with explosives to be detonated for the following shift. The first shift ended after all this work processes had been closed by the three-prisoner group.

The tunnels’ entrance had small barracks with boards and sheet metal, which stored the prisoner’s working tools such as: axes, pickaxes, shovels, hammer drills, mining drills (hexagonal section rods of different lengths from 50 to 150 cm placed in the hammer and drilling holes where the explosive device would be put).Before entering the mine, the prisoners would be divided in groups of three, where one was a miner and two were carters.After taking their work tools, they would enter the tunnel and  go to the exploded area to start work.

In the copper area the daily target was also seven wagons. Provided that one shovelful of copper weighed less than that of pyrite, work was somewhat less difficult in these areas. Furthermore, climate conditions in copper tunnels were more stable and there was no great temperature variation as in the pyrite area. According to the same estimate, the quantity a prisoner had to manually load onto the wagons every day to then transport them to the heap was 8,400 kilograms of copper.

The work routine was also the same in the copper area. At the start, they extracted mineral with wagons from the work front where the explosion had occurred, cleaned the inert material, and then reinforced the cleared front, create holes to detonate the explosives for the successive shift.

In the pyrite area the daily rate for each working group was seven wagons. As such, the two carters of the group had to fill seven wagons of mineral.  According to former prisoner Shkëlqim Abazi’s testimony, a wagon would take around 200 shovels of pyrite to fill. A shovelful of pyrite weighed from 18 to 25 kg. According to an average number, one wagon had around 3,600 kg of pyrite.  This estimate would mean that the two carters had to fill seven wagons, or 25,200 kg of mineral per shift, or 12,600 kg of mineral each.  Imagine the daily routine for this enslaving work where one man had to load 12,600 kg of mineral every day!

Beyond the grueling process of this mineral’s extraction, pyrite tunnels were far more dangerous than copper ones. The terrain was highly unstable due to the mineral’s acid sand-like composition, therefore collapses in pyrite tunnels were quite often. Furthermore, the acid environment made work all the harder. Acid drops that dripped ceaselessly in the tunnel not only eroded and burnt the prisoner’s unprotected skin; they also eroded and destroyed the rails on which prisoners had to push their wagons. This added on to the exhausting work: as the wagons had to be pushed for around one kilometer and the same distance back.