A limestone mine in Pennsylvania, housing millions of federal retirement records and operating under 24/7 surveillance, has drawn the attention of Elon Musk.
Musk, who leads the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), spoke about the facility last month, describing it as a “time warp.”
“There’s a limestone mine where we store all the retirement paperwork… It looks like something out of the ’50s because it was started in 1955. It’s like a time warp,” he said during a February appearance at the Oval Office.
Inside the mine, there are reportedly 22,000 cabinets, 400 million sheets of paper, and 700 workers manually processing up to 10,000 retirement applications per month.
After sharing photos of the site on social media, Musk criticized the outdated system:
“Because all that retirement paperwork is manual, it’s manually calculated. They’re written down on a piece of paper, then it goes down into a mine.”
Expressing frustration, he added:
*”We were told the maximum number of people who could retire in a month is 10,000—because all the paperwork is handwritten, stored in boxes, and processed underground.
Instead of working in a mine shaft carrying manila envelopes, these workers could be contributing to the U.S. economy in far more valuable ways.”*
Musk also highlighted a major operational flaw:
“The elevator breaks down sometimes, and nobody can retire. Doesn’t that sound crazy?”
The revelation underscores a glaring inefficiency in the federal retirement process, where more than 700 workers operate 230 feet underground, handling paper applications stored in manila envelopes and cardboard boxes.
As Musk’s DOGE department pushes for modernization, the discovery of this facility raises urgent questions about government bureaucracy and the need for digital transformation.
The mine is run by a company called Iron Mountain, whose shares were reportedly impacted following Musk’s comments.
However, CEO Bill Meaney said that he sees it as a ‘growth opportunity’ adding: “We see this as a continued opportunity for the company.”
The mine – which is leased to the government by Iron Mountain – is thought to be secure, thanks to its 24/7 security, surveillance cameras, armed checkpoints and metal detectors.
It’s also made of limestone, which is fire resistant, meanwhile temperature fluctuations underground are rare and expensive cooling systems are not required.
Musk described it as a ‘time warp’ (Fox News)
On the subject of retirement, Musk also said that DOGE wouldn’t be cutting Social Security benefits.
“No, in fact, what we’re doing will help with their benefits,” he recently told Fox News.
“Legitimate people, as a result of the work of DOGE, will receive more Social Security, not less.
“Want to emphasize that. As a result of the work of DOGE, legitimate recipients of Social Security will receive more money not less money.
“And let the record show that I said this and it will be proven out to be true. Let’s check back on this in the future.”
