Several years before they can start. The Russians drilled really deep, 12 km, said it got really HOT, 260 degrees Celsius.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kola_Superdeep_Borehole
I remember reading about that. The Russians have the record for deep drilling, as far as I know.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/ef/Murman_region.png It’s somewhere on this map. I have no idea where. There are also 5,000 Skolt Sa’ami around there herding sheep who are sheltered in old Soviet Army barracks and buildings. They used to herd reindeer but were wiped out by residual radiation from Chernobyl. A big nickel iron meteor is in this area, and somebody seeded gigantic Alaskan King Crab in the sea to the North. The Norwegians consider them an invasive species and crab fishermen from Russia and the Kola Peninsula regularly visit the area. During crab fishing season a hotel room in the one nasty hotel in the area (it has water jugs in the room) can cost $3,000 a night. Anyone wanting to go work on this project (world’s deepest hole) should be prepared for substantial hardship. This was about the most isolated spot on Earth outside of Antarctica ~ and there are no belly dancers nearby.