Joined: Wed Jan 14, 2015 3:52 pm Posts: 576 Location: N Dakota
My bud is off to the east coast! Maine is in big trouble now. Boise was a nice jump point, now I'll have to find some other idiot to tolerate me. Or figure out something to dig for in Maine. Grouse! We can dig those out of a spruce tree. Moose! dig them out of the swamp. Salmon, maybe dig those out of a river. Salmon placer mining? Use the sluice box as a salmon ladder and let them swim into the bucket for supper! Lobster dredging with a 4" suction to a high banker? Well, I guess I have all winter to come up with a scam to convince someone else to carry all my stuff up the mountain by next spring. Doesn't sound like there is much to dig for in Maine.
Joined: Thu Jan 24, 2008 4:01 pm Posts: 1902 Location: Pine City, NY and Dothan, AL
Dan&Sally wrote:
Doesn't sound like there is much to dig for in Maine.
Where did you get that idea? Nothing much except beryl, topaz, tourmaline, and other such stuff. Try to find a copy of Vandall (Van) King's "Mineralogy of Maine".
Joined: Wed Jan 14, 2015 3:52 pm Posts: 576 Location: N Dakota
Jason, you are a brave sole. Ive gone through a few mining partners. None have died, but most agree Im probably not the partner they were looking for. Something about mining brings out the truth in character. Im that guy people say, You did WHAT?! and I shrug my shoulders and go about my business. Going into abandoned mine shafts, repelling down air shafts to try and reach latterals, going into the mine entrance after stepping in the bear pile. Probably not the smartest of things to do. But then I did volunteer and spend 6 months in an active mine field for a change of pace. Think hard about who you volunteer to mine with. I might be the last person on earth you see and spend your last breath cussing after the shaft caves in.
Joined: Wed Sep 02, 2015 10:52 pm Posts: 1131 Location: Central Queensland, Australia
Quote:
Think hard about who you volunteer to mine with. I might be the last person on earth you see and spend your last breath cussing after the shaft caves in.
I don't think you're inspiring any confidence there Dan
Absolutely true though, I'm still recovering from a nasty prospecting accident involving a collapsing hole - another couple of feet closer and I would have been killed. Five weeks ago yesterday, my collar bone and sternum are still giving me some grief, truth be told they probably copped tiny fractures. Some of my co-workers can't believe that inintend to go back out there and keep doing it
Joined: Wed Jan 14, 2015 3:52 pm Posts: 576 Location: N Dakota
Well you know Lefty, if we were smart we wouldnt be miners in the first place. The only time I claimed to be smart was when I kicked some rocks down a shaft before I climbed down. It buzzed with rattlesnakes. I lowered a light down and there were hundreds of them laying in the shelves and ledges, and more on the floor 50ft down. Decided I was smart and packed my gear.
Joined: Wed Sep 02, 2015 10:52 pm Posts: 1131 Location: Central Queensland, Australia
Quote:
if we were smart we wouldnt be miners in the first place.
Have to agree with that But that big find is always out there, so we just keep on taking these risks......
Damn lucky you kicked those rocks down that hole. My problem is that over here, ours don't rattle to warn you, they just bite.
With ever-stricter official mines department health and safety measures to try and comply with, miners aren't always keen for inspectors to go down their shafts. A common trick is for them to say to the inspector "well, a deadly King Brown snake fell down the shaft this morning and he's still down there. I aint' going down that hole for anything but if you wanted to go down you're quite welcome"
Joined: Wed Jan 14, 2015 3:52 pm Posts: 576 Location: N Dakota
I havent quite figured out how to gets snakes to leave a shaft. Ive tried black powder concussion cans, sulfer smoke bombs, household roach bombs, ammonia and bleach mixed. seems like nothing works. Once they have decided its home its theirs. Ive learned to mine in the shafts in the winter when they just dont move. Ive also learned higher elevations have less snakes. Old mines above 5000 ft are better if you dont want snakes for company. Used to live in Texas and California, now I'm in N. Dakota. I dont miss the snakes at all. But when I head west to Montana there are a few Diamond backs at lower elevations in the south. Always cautious in the brush. Whats your cure for snakes in the ole mine?
Joined: Wed Sep 02, 2015 10:52 pm Posts: 1131 Location: Central Queensland, Australia
Quote:
Whats your cure for snakes in the ole mine?
I don't mine underground so I really have no idea how the people who do get rid of them. The last time I saw it happen (for real, not to put off a mines inspector) the owner was walking over with a long-handled rake and a large plastic garbage pail with a clip-down lid. I assume he was going to try and get a cranky venomous snake into it and take him back up the shaft.
I guess you could position yourself on the ladder and let go with a charge of birdshot from a 12-gauge and hope the concussion doesn't cave in the hole. You'd need a lot of shells to deal the problem you describe though.
You could call in the Turtleman, I'll be sure to look out for that episode if you do
But seriously, it sounds like you've already tried everything I would have thought of myself. You would think that there must be something that would compel them to evacuate. Do you think the smoke/vapour devices you've used are adequete for that volume of air? If you can see clouds of the stuff belching back out of the hole, you would think it would be enough to drive out anything. Reptiles metabolize differently to us so perhaps it doesn't bother them as much? Why they wouldn't leave after an explosion has go me beat though
Joined: Wed Sep 02, 2015 10:52 pm Posts: 1131 Location: Central Queensland, Australia
randuzi wrote:
Snake problem...pet mongoose, perhaps?
Now there's some logical thinking! Though I think Dan is going need a lot of mongooses (or is it mongeese?) Pour a zoological concoction of everything that eats snakes down the hole - mongoose, secretary birds, kookaburras, monitor lizards, pythons.
Joined: Wed Jan 14, 2015 3:52 pm Posts: 576 Location: N Dakota
"If that don't work I'd say forget it."
I did, and walked away from a claim I probably shouldnt have. In '99 gold wasnt worth $200. an oz. I had 3 tiers of laterals up to 1000 ft in length above water. Supposedly there were 2 more levels under water. It was still producing before WWII when it was shut down. Between earth quakes and gasses in the lower levels it was abandoned. I pulled maybe 10 oz from small veins that had better potential but the whole thing was a death trap. I managed to reopen the air shaft to the first level but flow wasnt very good. Those snakes were always a problem, and there was alot of unstable mountain on top of 100 yr old beams. If I could have accessed through the main entrance instead of the air shaft it might have been different. They blasted it closed before it was abandoned. Id still have to pull 2 oz a week to make wages at todays gold price. I like Placer claims a lot more. Less work, less profit but if I dont like the results I dont have to blast to move!
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