Nordgrey Posted October 14, 2010 Share Posted October 14, 2010 Just watched them winch out the shift foreman in the Chilean mine. An absolutely incredible feat of engineering. Before I joined the Navy I was a hard rock miner in gold and lead/zinc mines for five years and before that I grew up in coal mining country. Miners are a special breed, so here is a tune from a local songstress. Working Man, Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris@Adams Posted October 14, 2010 Share Posted October 14, 2010 This is truly great news! As a 4th generation Coal Miner, I Thank You! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marylander Posted October 14, 2010 Share Posted October 14, 2010 Amazing story indeed. It's great to see what people can accomplish when they pull together. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
03silvss Posted October 14, 2010 Share Posted October 14, 2010 not to start anything but i heard that the u.s is trying to take credit for drilling the whole down to the miners, but it was actually a company from alberta here in canada, i dont know the whole story but thought it was an interesting fact Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
70'sChevyGirl Posted October 14, 2010 Share Posted October 14, 2010 It was pretty emotional watching them come out of the tube one by one. My Grandfather was a Coal Miner in PA. I still have his old helmet. It was powered by oil. Mining looks like a very scary job unless you are only strip mining. What does it feel like being underground?? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nordgrey Posted October 14, 2010 Author Share Posted October 14, 2010 Teresa, for me, the first couple days I was INTENSLY aware of everything going on around me, it is that alien and environment. But like any other job, it quickly became a work place, much like any other. I will say that miners are the most professional people I have ever had the pleasure of working with. There was the usual horsing around in the change room or "the dry" as we called it, before and after each shift, but the moment we went through that portal and planet Earth was in every direction you looked, it was all business because you instinctively know that each and every miner on your shift depends on everyone doing their job the right way to make sure that the number of tags on the "out" board at the end of the shift is the same as the number that started the shift. That's not to say that no fun was had underground. When I started, I was a "Nipper". Nipper for nip over here and get that, nip over there and get this. Gopher just would not have worked! As the nipper, I got tagged with giving tours since I was driving the LandCruiser and knew where everything was. With the right tour groups you could have a lot of fun, others you had to play it pretty straight. Some folks just don't deal well standing in the underground magazine surrounded by a couple tons of high explosives. If the job market in the mining game wasn't so volitile, I would probably still be at it today, twenty years later. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris@Adams Posted October 14, 2010 Share Posted October 14, 2010 Jim your mining language is different then ours. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marylander Posted October 14, 2010 Share Posted October 14, 2010 Jim your mining language is different then ours. Chris, your WEST VIRGINIA language is different from ours. :lolsmack: (just joking with you, buddy ) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
70'sChevyGirl Posted October 14, 2010 Share Posted October 14, 2010 Chris, your WEST VIRGINIA language is different from ours. :lolsmack: (just joking with you, buddy ) :lolsmack: I think I will stay above ground until I don't have the choice. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris@Adams Posted October 14, 2010 Share Posted October 14, 2010 Where's the love! Mods!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nordgrey Posted October 14, 2010 Author Share Posted October 14, 2010 Chris, one of the interesting things I always found working underground was hearing the different names for things depending on the miner's work background and nationality. Up here, in a hardrock mine we refer to waste rock as waste, but in our coal mines they call it gob. In coal mines here it is the "roof", in hard rock we called it the "back". Hammer drills are more commonly called jack legs from my back ground, what we called a scoop tram, others called it a LHD (load/haul/dump). What kind of coal mining Chris? The first/last/only coal mine I was in did long wall advance mining. Just hearing the gob collapsing behind the roof jacks and the methane popping out of the working face was enough to convince me I was going to be a hardrock miner. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris@Adams Posted October 14, 2010 Share Posted October 14, 2010 Chris, one of the interesting things I always found working underground was hearing the different names for things depending on the miner's work background and nationality. Up here, in a hardrock mine we refer to waste rock as waste, but in our coal mines they call it gob. In coal mines here it is the "roof", in hard rock we called it the "back". Hammer drills are more commonly called jack legs from my back ground, what we called a scoop tram, others called it a LHD (load/haul/dump). What kind of coal mining Chris? The first/last/only coal mine I was in did long wall advance mining. Just hearing the gob collapsing behind the roof jacks and the methane popping out of the working face was enough to convince me I was going to be a hardrock miner. Jim, We call the mine roof the ''top'' and what you call the scoop tram we call ''scoop'' or ''Unitrac''. And yes we are a Longwall mine. When I started in 1981 we had 2 LW's. The ''gob''still falls behind the Longwall ''Shields''. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
70'sChevyGirl Posted October 15, 2010 Share Posted October 15, 2010 Ever find anything interesting in there?? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris@Adams Posted October 15, 2010 Share Posted October 15, 2010 Ever find anything interesting in there?? Petrified wood & Iron Pyrite (fools gold)! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nordgrey Posted October 15, 2010 Author Share Posted October 15, 2010 The last gold mine I worked at I found a couple nuggets about the size of my thumb, probably about 3 or 4 ounces. There were always folks driving in off the highway to see if they could buy nuggets. Had to explain to them unless they hold the mineral rights for gold mining for a plot of land it is illegal to even possess native gold. LOL Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
70'sChevyGirl Posted October 15, 2010 Share Posted October 15, 2010 The last gold mine I worked at I found a couple nuggets about the size of my thumb, probably about 3 or 4 ounces. There were always folks driving in off the highway to see if they could buy nuggets. Had to explain to them unless they hold the mineral rights for gold mining for a plot of land it is illegal to even possess native gold. LOL You don't even have a souvenior?? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nordgrey Posted October 15, 2010 Author Share Posted October 15, 2010 Souvies from a gold mine are worth your job.......LOL Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
70'sChevyGirl Posted October 15, 2010 Share Posted October 15, 2010 Darn. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.