Opal Mining Newsletter May-15-03 on Mining Underground for Opals in Coober Pedy

G/Day Again Folks,

This week has been up and down.
Went to the claim on Monday to pull some more water out, which I did but only pulled out 20 buckets as I was starting to get some that was not full, so I rigged the winch back up with the large safety hook that I use to go downunder with and then went down to have a look.

This is what it looks like as I am near the bottom of the shaft, you can see the telescope and where the rope is connected at the bottom that is the clamp for the large 90% elbow, from here you can see the elbow is not to be seen and it normally stands about 2.5 feet off the ground but has fallen over so it is not as high here, but it is buried in dirt and mud.

Here you can see where I did the last shot but did not finish pulling all of the dirt because I did my back in, you can see the small pick in a drill hole in the roof as this is what I do to keep the picks and shovel out of the way when I am not using them, pity I did not put the large pick up like this as it is buried somewhere in here, you can see the pillow that I sit on when I am picking the level and that handle just in front of it is the shovel.

Here I am now close to the bottom and you can see very plainly that the elbow is nowhere to be seen, just the top of it and the clamp, when I got this clamp off and the telescope the elbow was full of dirt and mud to the top, this must have got full as the water and mud (dirt) was running down the shaft as it was leaning against the ladders.

This elbow I cannot get out as it is so heavy with being full and covered in the mud that I cannot move it as yet until I have removed some of the water and the dirt and mud surrounding it, then I will be able to get the dirt out so I can use it again, but that wont be for a few days yet.

This shot shows you the back left of the hole, here you can see where the water is below the ironstone level and the level is about 5 feet off the floor, so when I stood in the middle of the ballroom (that's what we call it as we are opening up) I was in it up to my shorts and a little bit more, or to put it more bluntly up to my ass in it.

Was a little bit deeper that I was hoping for but we will manage, also on the left some of the wall has collapsed as it has most of the way round the ballroom, not much but enough to bury some things as here in this lot is a 500w Spotlight somewhere, probably will be no good when I get it out, just like the 100 foot electric lead that is buried or half of it under the shaft were the ladders are.

As you can see I have managed to recover the shovel, this is the most important piece of equipment that I will need very soon to get the rest of the mud etc out of the ballroom, but for the pick I have no idea where I left it, but I will find it in due course, here also some of the wall has fallen down due to the water making it week, its possible that the pick is under here, thankfully the roof seems to be solid at this time will know more when I can get a electric light under, but until I can get the water out I have to leave it hanging down the shaft so I cannot see real well under there, but enough to work on the floor.

Here is the damage to the Telescope, not a lot but enough to stop it sliding inside the plastic pipe, took me about 10 minutes to panel beat it right, then I took it back down to put it in, I also had to put a rubber sleeve on the telescope as I had not put one on just for the opening up, this sleeve stops the air from being sucked in between the 2 pipes, increasing the vacuum at the elbow.

I have tried to pull the water out with the blower this time having the small elbow on the bottom of the telescope and it did now work, I was a bit disappointed as I was hoping to get some work done today, I know that it will take me a few days to a week to get this water and mud/dirt out as it is not going to be easy and the mud will block the elbows in the last couple of days resulting in some more hard work in un-blocking them, as I will have to go up top to unblock the top one.

It is when the pipe where it goes into the Hopper gets blocked (bottom pipe below) that I have a big problem as I cannot unblock it and have to wait for it to dry and fall out which in the winter time that we are in now, this can take a week for it to happen, what happens is as you are pulling the wet dirt and it slides along or up the pipes when it comes to a elbow it leaves a build up of mud and eventually gets that thick it restricts the opening so when a bigger piece gets there it becomes blocked.

Also here you can see a couple of the local Parrots and wildlife, they are a regular visitor here on my blower along with the Sulfur Crested Cockatoo, these are the Pink and Gray Galahs.

All the above happen over this last week, I had the mining truck in one morning to have a exhaust pipe flange gasket replaced and found out that the manifold to cylinder head gasket is also burned out in the middle so I have to take the truck back in on Monday to have the done and I will have to leave it there, so I will not be back on the field again until Tuesday I think.

I hope to have a bit better luck next week in getting the rest of the water out as I am getting a little impatient with all of this messing around, but as this has never happened to me before and I hope it never happens to me again, I am unsure of what to do and am following instruction from other people who have experience in the area.

But as I am finding out, what some people tell you about how it should be done and that they have done this before, makes me wonder if they have done it at all or have like me just been told about how it is done, there is a big difference in standing in 5 foot plus deep water trying to regulate a telescope so it is about half in and half out of the water for it to work and the water being very cold as they told me to do 3 weeks ago, bad enough standing in just under 2 foot of water doing this, as just under the shaft with the build up of dirt this is about what I am standing in thankfully.

But the people who have lent this elbow have give me the good oil (explained what to do etc) so we will see what happens next week, makes it a bit harder as I work by myself and so a bit slower with having no experience in this sort of thing, but who knows opal may not be that far away.

Here we are again Subscribers,

Hard to believe that another week has gone by already.
Last week I told you that I was having trouble getting the water out of the claim with the blower and I thought that the elbow that I was using was at the wrong angle and went to borrow another elbow from a friend of mine.

Well that did not work ether, but as the claim is 23 kilometers (14.5 miles) out of town it is a bit of running around and time consuming, so by the time I have sent the truck up and gone down and put things on or taken it off the time just seems to go nowhere, so I only make the trip once a day.

Here is the elbow I borrowed and showed you last week, here you can see it hanging ready for action, this is normally used up top as it is a 45% elbow, this is the one that goes between the top pipe in the shaft and the pipe that leads up to the Hopper.

This is how we fit them together with a rubber sleeve and a clamp to stop any air being sucked into the join as we need all of the suction we can get at the bottom, but this did not work ether, it tried to lift the water and in fact was lifting it some way up the pipes but did not reach the top and when I let the revs off the motor the water just came back down, so its back to town for me again with another day gone.

It would seem that the blower is not creating enough suction, so I had to consult another friend of mine who runs a workshop here doing repairs and making new stuff for our blowers etc, about how to increase the revs on the engine as I did not know which screw to turn on the Diesel Injection Pump and do not like messing around with something that I do not know.

I got the information I needed and went back out to make the adjustments and went under to try to pull the water, but again it would not do it, so between going up and trying to get the revs up on the motor, which I could not, the motor will not go past 1500 revs, so I though that I had been given the wrong info so I have to come back into town.

I have to see the guy again and tell him it will not work and is he sure that what he told me is the right info as that screw just seems to adjust the throttle leaver but does not make any difference to the revs, so he says he will make a phone call for me to make sure, but the guy is out so I will have to wait until the next day to find out, so I decide that tomorrow I will go and pull water out by bucket again.

I have got a Greek Friend of mine, in fact it is the Opal Miner that I first went underground with when I came here 11 years ago, to come and help me on the claim and pull water out by hand, I will go under and stand in the very cold water and make sure that the bucket gets filled and he is up top to empty the bucket and start to send it down again.

This worked very well as I have the hand control underground with me and I have a another switch on the hoist above for him to use as well, so I fill the bucket and take it up the shaft for about 20 feet and when I stop the winch he will then start it again and bring the bucket up[ to the top and empty it then send it down for about 10 feet and stop then I take over and bring it down, this is a lot quicker that working by myself and we are pulling about 17 buckets an hour.

I finally managed to get the large 90%elbow out of the mud and clean it as the buckets was being taken up the shaft, so I have this piece of equipment back, but as for the electric lead you can see here, half of it is still buried under all of the dirt that fell down the shaft so I will have to wait until I have the water out so I can dig it out with the shovel, it should be alright when it dries out for a week or so, but I still have no idea where the big pick is buried will have to wait until the water is gone then I can look for it.

I managed to get around the ballroom to take this photo of the lat shot that I did, the wall on the left is the part of the shot that did not come out properly and on the left you can see as the dirt is on a angle to the top of the shot, this is part of the wall that has fallen down due to the water, most of the dirt has now turned to MUD, on the floor it is roughly 12 inches deep in the middle.

This hand light that is still where I left it, shows me where the water level was up to, bit hard to see but it was between the yellow handle and the switch, exactly half way, so my first thought of the water being reaching to the roof was wrong, the roof is very dry, but the water has seeped in through the sandstone to the ironstone level and as the ground is wet in the first place, if I don't get the water out it will sit there for a long time and the ground will not dry out to any degree for at least 9 months to a year.

This is just to the left of the shaft that the ladders are in and the one the bucket comes down, as I was looking down here while the bucket was going up I noticed some material on the that brown patch which is the ironstone level but dissolved into mud, I picked it up and a couple of pieces were opal, I don't know where it came from as there is no trace of it in the wall, but in looking for a bit more, this is when I realized that all that is here has turned into mud, even the big pieces are on the soft side, you can see in the middle where I have run my fingers through it.

I have now made my mind up to just get as much water out as I can, in the last 3 days the level has gone down roughly 10 inches, I had to come up a bit early yesterday as the legs below the knees where getting numb due to the cold water, but I should think that within a week I will have out what I can.

I will be going to see Greek George the Driller just as soon as I have finished this update to see when he can come and drill me a shaft or two if he can, as I mentioned on April 12th, that I had a shaft 43 feet away from me and I might drill another shaft here and open up again and this is what I will do.

Here is the photo of where I am and the shaft I will be opening up on is straight across the top of the hand winch handle, that small white dump you can see, I will be moving this tomorrow (Monday) as I will want him to set up on this shaft and take it deeper for me as it is only down to 76 feet which is the level I am on, so it will have to go to at least 83 feet, 90 feet if he can and move forward about 3 feet and drill me another, so I can connect them together and open up again.

If I was to continue with mining in this spot with all of the wet, very wet ground unless I could get it out it would be very dangerous for me as I would have to have electric leads on the floor from the drill etc and if there was very wet mud on the floor, well I don't have to tell you what would happen there.

But as I was going to drive to this shaft anyway, once I have opened up again and who knows I just might find some more opal over there anyway, then drive back straight away to this spot and connect to this ballroom this then gives it more airflow and will help it to dry out quicker, when it has dried out enough for me to continue working in I will continue here again.

This is the best option in the long run and I feel it will be the quickest as well as the safest, although I don't really like opening up again, but I never said this game was easy no matter what age you are, just gets harder the older you get, just like sex you get the job done, just takes longer.

Again I 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 next weeks Issue, who knows what I will have to report.

Until the next issue.........

and wish me lots of LUCK.

Cya Later, Stuart Bird.

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