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Just some nice news from australia
gus
Registered Users Posts: 16,209 Major grins
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gus
Registered Users Posts: 16,209 Major grins
gus
Registered Users Posts: 16,209 Major grins
gus
Registered Users Posts: 16,209 Major grins
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Nice thoughts Gus,
I've been following a number of mine accidents recently. I have a close interest in mine stuff as I used to be a gold miner myself in the 80's.
Deep underground it's a different world. My mine had a terrible fire just after I left with many dead. Mines are terrible places, I'm now addicted to the open space of deserts, they share the same heat but the roof will not fall and crush you.
It is the most difficult enviroment on earth and my thoughts go out to all miners everywhere.
Bod.
Jerry Lodriguss - Sports Photographer
Reporters sans frontières
My Gallery
now, why couldn't news.com.au have a better picture?
my words, my "pro"pictures, my "fun" pictures, my videos.
Glad they are safe.
My Gallery
I'm glad to hear it ended well
What a terrifying experience............Mereimage
These are terrible incidents but it tends to draw communities and countries together for common good.
Our national news networks reported that the two miners survived because they got to a protective cage. After it was determined they were alive, a small tunnel was drilled horizontally from an adjacent drift to get them food, water and i-pods. The news mentioned delays due to extremely hard rock. What an ordeal for their families.
Just in case anyone missed it, theyre out and having a drink at the local pub in memory of the mate they lost.
Cheers. Nigel
All care but no responsibility
Great news.
A brief outline of a mine.
Solid rock. With a small band of gold hidden in two to maybe ten cm's of valued 'stuff' gold ore that looks like black pebbles. With a roof a max of 1.2m above your head at an angle of 45 degrees in +30c at 90+% humidity. This is the 'face'.
Coal is often a huge 'face' rather than a few cm's. You would not mine 10cm of coal but would if it was 10m.
Get as little normal rock up to the surface as possible for maximum return. Drill holes with 3m drill bits on numatic drills, fill with explosives, wire together, head to the surface and blast. Go down and clear away by hand then start all over again.
The roof pop's with the pressure, held up by piles of stacked logs, everything is shattered rock fragments that are very sharp and cut your hands.
Pitch black, turn off your headlamp and you can see nothing one inch from your eye.
Water and air. All you need to mine. Air drills and water cooling and washing down of the dust that will kill you just as surely as a roof fall only much slower.
Nightmares come from deep underground.....
My own history.
Disaster in a Gold Mine
Monday, Sep. 29, 1986 Some 2,400 miners were on the day shift last Tuesday morning at the Kinross gold mine, 65 miles from Johannesburg.
A welding team was repairing a broken track for one of the trains that help carry gold ore to the surface. Suddenly, an acetylene tank sparked and flared.
Flames swept through the tunnel, igniting plastic-covered wiring, which in turn set fire to polyurethane foam that keeps the walls dry and solid.
Within minutes the mine shaft filled with thick black smoke containing toxic fumes from the burning plastic.
Choking miners immediately fell and died of asphyxiation. When the initial 9 1/2-hour rescue operation ended, 177 were dead, one was missing, and 235 were injured, making Kinross the worst gold-mine disaster in South African history.
All but five of the victims were black, and the black-dominated National Union of Mineworkers denounced the "unacceptably low safety standards" in the mines. In fact, Kinross last year lost its top safety rating. But the mine's general manager said the plastics that burned had been considered safe. A government investigation is now under way.
Glad the Aussies made it out.
Bod...
Jerry Lodriguss - Sports Photographer
Reporters sans frontières