The Swiss mines have never been talked about as much as the Polish, French or Latin American ones; perhaps they are considered to be less dangerous. The only ones that are working nowadays are those that extract rock-salt. Switzerland is a small country but it used to extract iron, silver and coal. Rock-salt is of vital importance and its history is closely bound with man's. The Bex salt mines , in the valley of Rodano, were opened in the fifteenth century. At that time the salt was taken from the surface but later it was extracted from the heart of the mountain. Mining underground became a normal job carried out in infernal conditions.