Gallery: Step Inside China’s Hellish, Illicit Steel Factories

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    01

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    Smoke fills the sky above a steel factory in Inner Mongolia, China.
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    02

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    A worker takes a break.
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    Molten steel gushes past.
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    04

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    A truck unloads waste, coal and stone.
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    05

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    Smoke rises from molten metal running down an embankment.
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    06

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    A worker lingers by a cooling pit.
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    07

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    Embers fly from a furnace at an unauthorized steel factory.
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    Kevin Frayer/Getty Images
    08

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    Gloves, glasses and a hood do only so much to protect against the heat and embers.
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    A worker pours hot steel at a factory in Inner Mongolia, China.
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    Time for a smoke break.
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    Kevin Frayer/Getty Images
    11

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    An unauthorized steel factory in Inner Mongolia.
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    Kevin Frayer/Getty Images
    12

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    A worker takes a load off beside a furnace.
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