Ruby crystal mines of Burma

Don't forget your hard hat.

The ruby crystal mines of Burma are a place where (presumably) Burmese humans mine ruby crystals containing great and unexplained power, yet the 'Earth humans' merely use the crystals for decoration and jewelry. Foolish flesh creatures!

Fiction

The Transformers cartoon

With only a little more energy needed to return to and conquer Cybertron, Megatron chose to collect it at the ruby crystal mines of Burma. While the other Decepticons toiled away in the mines, Soundwave claimed that the rubies contained enough energy to power all of Cybertron, leading Megatron to rant that the rubies would give them the means to defeat the Autobots and conquer the Universe!

Until Sparkplug Witwicky and Bumblebee buried the Decepticons in the mine with a small bomb, More than Meets the Eye, Part 2 endangering themselves more than the Decepticons, who blasted their way out of the mines in no time. More than Meets the Eye, Part 3

Notes

• Sparkplug Witwicky claims to have once worked in the mines. He sure gets around.
• Burma happens to look a lot like North America.
• The crystal mines appear to be a reference to Burma's real-life "Valley of Rubies". The gems are the country's biggest export, and make up 90% of the world's supply of rubies. Why Sparkplug ever wanted to work there is hard to imagine, as the working conditions in the mines have been compared to slave labor, with some mine operators being accused of drugging their employees to make them work longer.
• Based on the evidence presented in this episode, any one of the rubies we humans wear as jewelry could be from Burma, and thus be liable to explode at any moment. So when your spouse asks why you didn't get them rubies for Valentine's Day, say you're doing them a favor.