My neighbour Tom doesn't like tunnelling, so he digs the most awesome, small open cuts. Tom is not a young man, but puts me to shame with his energy!! We are only 20-30ft away with our closest workings, in the same material, but tunnelling.
Joined: Mon Oct 17, 2005 10:56 am Posts: 6461 Location: The frozen north prairie :-/
That would certainly be my way of mining . I don't know how anyone goes into those small tunnels! You're a braver man than I! (Okay, so I'm not a man, but you understand the sentiment .)
_________________ IIJA Registered Gemologist GIA Graduate Gemologist
Well my friends, I will have to post photos of past finds, as the digging has been cut short, and we have had to return to our beachside abode!! Many factors, most pressing being some essential work on our old sailing ship. It needs to be lifted from the water, for some T.L.C to the underwater parts.
Managed quite a lot of developement work at the mine, and defined the need for 1 more shaft to access the area we believe will be the next "jewel box". It was a difficult decision, but unlike fruit on a tree, which must be picked when ready, Sapphires are happy to await our return. It may be possible to get some more time digging, before the heat starts in october/november, so will get all my work on the ship done quickly. In the meantime, I continue to seek miners with rough for sale, and will let you all know if "good stuff", is offered.
To Barbara, and Bob, yes, we are going to open cut from Toms boundary with us, to our last workings. It will cut our driveway in, but it just looks too "juicy", with the pyroclastic boulders peeping out of the surface, ( they can be seen stacked up beside Tom's cut.) and we think there may be a big uplift under our entrance drive.
Attachment:
File comment: a parcel of parti-colours, or colour zoned sapphires.
File comment: This is the area I've spoken of. Our boundary is to left, and current workings just out of shot to right. The whole area has the tops of big boulders at surface. Current workings have featured in other posts.
474_renamed_27442.jpg [ 71.13 KiB | Viewed 2417 times ]
Joined: Wed Sep 02, 2015 10:52 pm Posts: 1131 Location: Central Queensland, Australia
I'm on board with your neighbour's idea Barry - I'm a bit of a wuss when it comes to going underground
I know it's pretty safe if done properly, for some reason I still don't like the thought of thousands of tonnes of earth and rock hanging over my head.
A friend mined underground at Bedford Hill for three years until he had a close call with a cave-in. He wouldn't go back underground after that.
I'm still recovering after being caught in a collapsing earth bank, a big piece about a quarter of a tonne or more struck me in the chest and crushed me against the ground. That was two weeks ago and I reckon it'll be another two before I'm close to fully recovered.
Anyway, to each their own. I hope you continue to do well
Joined: Wed Sep 02, 2015 10:52 pm Posts: 1131 Location: Central Queensland, Australia
Barry, how deep down is the floor where Tom is digging?
The side view of the material looks just like what I have over near the Washpool. There's that layer of brownish soil, at my place it contains pockets of bearing wash here and there. That sits on a band of red clay 18 inches to two feet thick, just like in the photo. Punch through that and second wash begins, a paler, yellowish-coloured material. It seems to have all the right ingredients - chunks of basalt, globs of volcanic ash and proper quartzite billies the size of 44-gallon drums in it.......but not a sign of stone.
No sapphire, no zircon, no black spinel, bugger all iron stone - nothing heavy. It's very clearly been part of a river system, all the rocks in it have the classic stream-worn shape.
I haven't been able to use my machines yet so progress has been very slow. I'm down about five feet and it just keeps going down with no sign of a floor. The few neighbours I have where I am say that there is no stone in it at all. I've had a look at their diggings and they all look the same - a small hole no bigger than a kitchen table and none of them have dug any further than a foot or two into the second wash before giving up. No one has dug to a floor.
The old timers who were our neighbours at Russian gully decades ago were very insistent that you must reach a floor and then put through a good quantity of material from off that floor before you can make a judgement as to whether there is worthwhile stone there or not. A commercial miner very close by has supposed raked good stone out of the same material. Another bloke over your way said he has a band of the stuff 11 feet thick with good stone - but only on and a little above the floor and he only washes the bottom two feet.
Anyway, with luck it will all be ready to go by Easter and then I'll be able to move enough dirt to decide whether I've pegged a dud or not.
Joined: Wed Jan 14, 2015 3:52 pm Posts: 576 Location: N Dakota
Who needs a tunnel rat? My uncles were tunnel rats in Nam, grandfather a private coal miner in the badlands of Dakota. I'll do anything to get warm today! -25 actual -37 wind chill.
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