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October 10, 2002.
Opal Mining Update - No 4 Putting a Tunnel Machine Underground with a Drill, Part 3 |
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Here are 9 more of the photo's on drilling shafts and some of George getting ready to put his Tunneling Machine down the hole, as you are going to see it takes some effort and help from his friends.
Here George and Mario is making sure that the machine is in the center and steady.  |
It is now in position and ready to be lowered down the shaft.
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Here it goes, this is also the first time that I have seen this, so I am happy to show others just how this happens, at first you would not think that the machine would fit through.
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But as you can see now it fits in very nicely with a bit of room to spare. (just)
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Almost there, it is half way through at this point and everything is going very well.
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Now it is on its way in the shaft as well, so everything is going alright at this point.
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Now we are in business, the machine is now well on its way down in the shaft, you can see in the bottom right corner of the photo the other small shaft with the seat and hand control on the end of the winch cable, this is what Mario will go down on in a couple of minutes.
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The tunnel machine is well and truly on its way now, I think that George has the shaft drill down to about 80 feet and don't forget that the 2 shafts are connected at the bottom.
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This photo shows you how the machine fits into the hole with plenty of room, when George has the machine near the bottom, he will stop and Mario will go down the small shaft and guide George from the bottom as to when the machine is touching bottom and then Bruno will help the machine to tip over onto its tracks.
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From here Bruno's job is done and he will return back to the surface to go to his own claim, where he mines with his wife as he also runs a tunneling machine of his own with his wife as the offsider.
George still has a lot of work to do yet to start mining with the machine, first he has to move the drill out of the way, then set up the Blower that also has the big generator on it. He then has to connect the cable to the Generator and run the cable down the shaft and connect to the tunnel machine to get it going, then he has to put the pipes down the shaft for the blower. You will see more about these pipes and how they are set up as you follow the updates on how I get set up on my claim for Opal Mining, so stay with us there is a lot more Interesting Stuff to come! Hope you have enjoyed this issue and look forward to the next one, hopefully I will have some more good photos to show you in the next issue and maybe some of Good Looking Opal and lots of it, I am still hoping that this will be a good year for us in mining, so stay with us over the next few months and find out what goes on in our part of the world as far as Opal Mining goes. Stay Tuned for the next Issue, who knows what I will have to report. Until the next issue.........  and wish me lots of LUCK.
Cya Later, Stuart Bird. To return back to the Archived Page for more Updates click, Here! |
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