Day 5 - Down We Go

A mucker filling a haul truck

Well what a day today turned out to be. I am slowly getting used to the “hurry up and wait” attitude around here. I normally don’t like just sitting and doing nothing but I keep telling myself “remember how much I am being paid to do so” and that makes it that much easier. This morning I was back in the classroom, for a Generic Underground Induction. It was actually fairly interesting and I have a whole new respect for the people who work in underground mining now (I suppose that kinda includes me now to). It is a very dangerous place to be, and I almost feel like you need to constantly watch over your shoulder. But in reality this is why there is so much training, to properly equip me with the knowledge to safely look after myself and my workmates. It is mostly “common sense” but understanding the dangers has made me that much more aware of avoiding them.

A cap lamp with built in PED

Even with what seemed like a break every 15min, we finished up this morning lesson early. Which gave us plenty of time to don some overalls and boots, and ensure our hardhats and belts fit. This was it, I finally was getting a miners helmet, yes, most of my excitement came from this. I didn’t actually realise until today just how heavy the gear you had to wear is, and how hot it becomes. Overalls, steel cap gumboots, hardhat, cap lamp (yep it has it’s own special name), safety glasses, PED (Personal Emergency Device, ill come back to this), Self Rescue (another I’ll get to), miner’s belt (which holds everything) and a respirator. Now, time for a quick lesson, but it’s interesting I promise you. PED, this device is actually two devices, first, it is the battery for you cap lamp. Secondly, it has a built in messaging system, like a pager. Each unit is specific to it’s owner, and mine control can send a character message to any unit to alert that person about something. For example, in an evacuation emergency, every PED would receive a message warning them to evacuate. To alert the user to a new message, the lamp on your head will flash 3 times, and the unit beeps. Told you if was cool. Self Rescue, this is another cool device, once you open the canister you find inside a bag with a snorkel mouth piece attached. It uses your breath to activate the chemical which releases oxygen. You can get between 1-2hrs if you have calm slow breathing they reckon. Both these items to add a bit of weight to your belt, but you only tend to notice it initially, and when you remove it. You can’t enter the mine without these either.

So off I went, down the mine. Down the portal (God I love that word, how many people say, went down the portal today to get to work, like something out of Stargate) We drove down in a Toyota Troop Carrier (one of the smallest vehicles down there) and we drove down, and down, and down, and down. As you go down, the level number goes up. We drove to 12L (the mine goes to 12L I believe), each level is 60m, therefore we were 720m below ground. Firstly, I have flown lots, and seen amazing things from the sky, and I have dived a bit, and seen some pretty amazing stuff down there, but never have I seen anything like this. TV, photos etc just don’t capture it. It is so strange and alien down there. And hot, quite hot actually. Every 100m adds a degree they reckon, it was 38 degrees on the surface when we went down, making it45 degrees at 12L. Warm. And to top off the actual beauty of these man made tunnels stretching in every direction as far as you can see (which is 0cm if you turn your lights off), the feelings caused when a 65 tonne haul truck appears ahead of you with two bright spot lights, and a diesel engine rumbling causing vibrations right through you, and you realise you have to reverse down hill in the pitch black until you find a bay to pull over, well, that certainly is the most comforting thing I have ever felt. These trucks are so large, that if one was to back over you, the driver probably wouldn’t notice. Above ground, they may not look like much compared to their bigger above ground brothers, but down there, when there is lucky to be a foot clearance around the entire truck the tunnel, and they appear out of nowhere, they are huge!

A self rescue oxygen system.

So yes, today was in one word, amazing. Something I am so glad to have had the chance to experience, and particularly glad that I will get to see more of it in the coming weeks and months. With no way of telling whether it is day, night, raining, snowing, hot, cold, it is just so different to life above. They have all the standard things down there, crib rooms with water, toilets (porta-loos mind you, only 1 flushing toilet down there), aircon, tv’s, fridges and workshops. There is even a fuel depot to fill up on 12L. We came across one bloke, on a big leather recliner, with two big 22” monitors in front of him. Attached to his chair, were two joysticks with some buttons on each. His job, believe it or not, was to remotely control to “muckers” (front end loaders basically) which were 4 levels below him, and pick up “muck” and transport it where necessary. It is really like a big video game. They set up virtual walls etc and the machines can use these to avoid hitting things etc, as well as in some areas full autopilot to other areas when the operator takes over again and dumps or picks up a load. Way to cool. The only thing that concerned me though was it was running on Windows XP. I just want to know what happens when he gets a virus, or a blue screen of death!!

And once again another day is gone (my book is awfully close to, I should have bought another), we had a few power outages this evening which made it hot and dark. I lose track of time in my room due to not being able to see out at all, no idea if it is day or night etc. Still, it’s back on now so all good. Also thanks to everyone who is reading and for your feedback. Nice to know others are interested.

• GFM has 1200km of underground tunnels
• The coppermine in Isa is 2km deep
• The term “crib” comes from the older days when the miners would play cards at lunch, in particular cribbage
• Although I haven’t seen any canaries yet (nor any bird feed), I did discover that modern gas detectors are nicknamed canaries
• It rains underground. Ground water seeps through the rocks and can create the effect of rain whilst driving