Mining Machine No. 9 was one of hundreds of similar constructions on Makem Te related to mining spice and ore from underground, started up by industrialists representing the Galactic Republic. It was a complex of barracks and driller garages located south of the capital city of Thousand Thousand. At the complex, rocks plunged downward into a deep pit, cutting across spice veins and ore deposits, eventually curving into a half-moon canyon, seventy-five kilometers long.