May 31, 2006 Opal Mining Update - No 61 A little Opal this Month and Moving the Machine

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Well we got the machine back in working order, still have a very small leak, but have not put my finger on it yet, but where it was leaking from before is fixed, so it may be where I have connected a pipe of hose as they were a few connections to remove as I had to remove another control unit in front of the one I had to fix so I could get to it, but it is not important at this stage but will keep my eye on it every day to see if I can locate it, then I can fix it. So here are back at it again and I have not gone that far and I have come across a small vertical, I have already dug some out of here and as there was color in it I took this photo, not that you can anything much here except where it is in the level, you can see the level has split and that the vertical is in-between the 2, this is very common when this happens and you are in the right ground as I am, there is also other bits of material that keeps coming and going in the level, but no big pocket as yet.

Here is a close up of the vertical, you can just see some color in it, unique how it forms as it does, with no trace of anything before you get to it and none after you have removed it, where did it come from and how did it get there, with no trace leading to it from above, I just love this game, how the ground is always changing from 1 inch to the next, you can see the ironstone level just above and below the opal.

Also I should have mentioned before that most miners here that I have spoken to over the years all say that verticals always lean towards the main slide or fault and of course I agree with them, so if you look at the photos closely you will see the small verticals slope towards the right and the main Slide of Fault is to my right some 50 feet or so and although I am not tunneling exactly parallel with it as I am tunneling away at an angle, but you still see the vertical leans and some more than this, but we still call them verticals, that is why when you see a piece of opal that has lines of color running through it, most likely it was from a vertical and the colors were laid down bit at a time over time. Here is 3 pieces of the vertical, there was not that much in it, after cleaning I got 15 pennyweights and when I have finished dressing it up for sale there will be just over 1/2 ounce of it I should think as some of it has a skin on the sides and I will have to remove this to expose the color for the photos.

This is the next day and when I started up I had only gone about 1 inch when I had this small vertical in front of me, see we have no idea where they are and when they will pop up this also had color, again I have already dug a some of it out and have jack picked out underneath ready to hand pick the rest out or as far as I can anyway if it should continue in for any distance.

This is just a little bit closer photo of above, this is to show you that was more material around in and near the level, I had today dug out 2 small verticals in 3 feet of tunneling, the rest you see here other that the vertical had no color, in fact 2 of them on the left disappeared as soon as I picked at them.

Here you can see 2 large blocks that fell down when I was at the face picking out some material, the one on the right just grazed the back of the left leg, happened so quick at first I did not realize what had happened, they came from were the 2 drives join together and these blocks had separated were the ironstone level is, lucky it only grazed me or it would have hurt for sure, don't think it would have broke any bones, but sure would have made me limp for a while it had it the leg full on, so for the next couple of feet I knocked this down before I went up there to be safe.

This shows you the side on the machine and how big they are, big and heavy enough to do some damage, you can see the pointed piece in-between the 2 drives, well this is from the top part that looks like this, just the ironstone level is the weak part and they separated at that point, you can see the ironstone on top of them and some small pieces in the next drive on the floor.

Here you can se that the level on the right side has stayed down and the level on the left side has kept rising and now I have Alinite come in which is a blessing as it will help to keep down the build up of the wet ground in the elbows and telescopes and I have had a touch of small material come in the level on the right, so will have to keep my eye on it very closely, but have to tell you that I don't miss anything at all in the level, every piece of potch can be seen no matter how small, this is whey we don't lose anything with a round tunnel machine, the face is so clean you see everything as it comes in.

Some what looked like green trace came in here, but turned out to be potch with a green tinge, looked good in the wall like most does but when dug out it was worthless.

Now the level on the left has dropped and joined back up again up with the level on the right which is a good thing, I like it when levels drop, means things can happen and opal can come in, so I have had to bring the machine back about 6 foot and make it go down to bring the level up where I can see it all above the cutting head, if you look at the roof where the arrow is you can see how much I have altered the angle of the machine and I still have to bring it down about 6 inches more yet as some of the middle of the level is still hidden from me when the head is rotating and I have found some color on the level right next to the head on the right side already.

Now the ground has changed again and the Alinite has gone altogether so now it is back to the wet ground, well it was good while it lasted and the elbows did not block up as much as they will now, I have also had some material come in on the left side just below the arrows, but at this stage it is only small bits of potch.

This photo is just to show you how the level looks on both sides of the machine from my point of view, you can see that it is easy to follow this ironstone level and there is traces of material along this drive on both sides in the level here and there, there is not much point having a dig on the right side as there is a drive next door and the wall is not that thick where the level is, so would not expect to find any opal in there and for the left side, well I intend to do another drive along side of this one later at some stage, before I move onto the next shaft.

You can see on the left of photo that I have had a dig in the wall, I do this when I come across some material in the face and it is on that side, so I know that I have found some at the point, sometimes I have left some in the side wall, with no color of course, so it can remind me that I found something there and after the next drive may dig between the two (Pillar Bashing) to make sure there is nothing left for anyone else that may come and check when I finally finish with the claim.

This is what is called a change of ground, you can see there is two different colored sandstone here, even without the ironstone level, which is called a defined level, and between the change of ground is a level, or what was a sea bed millions of years ago, it is that sea bed that is a level and where I am there is 5 levels, not all carry opal, but it can be found on 3 of them where I am, this level and the 2 above me and then you can find shells or skin shells in between them or on them or just below the level, see how hard it is to find opal, this is where the luck comes in, cannot just rely on experience alone.

This is also the end of the drive for me, I have gone under a fault and the trace has disappeared altogether and the elbow has got blocked again and I have just done under 8 feet of drive, so its time to bring the machine back and do the service on it, work out where I want to do the next drive and fix that small oil leak that I created when I repaired that control at the end of last month, also I have to make a modification to the machine, you will see that a bit later when I have done it.

The machine is back to the big shaft and I am going to do a drive at number 1, as you can see there is a pile of rocks there, they were one that I threw there as it was small drive when I was hand mining next to it and did not want to break them up with the jack pick, now I will have to move some of them again by hand and throw or put them in that drive on the right of number 1, the problem I have is that on top of those rocks are some Jasper Rocks. These are rocks that fell down the big shaft along with all of the dirt when it was being drilled and when I was pulling the dirt by hand, I would throw them up on the pile when I came a across them, now if I miss one and the cutters hit it, the Tungsten Tooth could and possibly would break, so I have be careful, but will use the machine to break up some of the bigger Alinite and Gypsum pieces if I can, the ones that give me trouble I will move by hand.

Now I am ready to put my so called Running Boards on the machine, so I went to Ross's on Saturday morning and made these brackets, I had already brought a length of board down about 4 weeks ago and as my ankle is starting to kill me by standing along side of the machine when picking at the face, it is time to do something about it.

So I placed the board along side of the machine and worked out the length and then cut it to size and worked out how to fit it on the machine, luckily for me there are already two brackets fitted on the machine, one either side and in the middle, so you can see where the middle bracket will fit, now to assemble the board so I can see if my calculations are right, bit different when you work things out in your head and then build something as it does not always workout.

Now I have drilled the holes and fitted the brackets, had to make sure that the end brackets was in the right place, that is why I had to drill all of the holes down here, did not know if the board would sit level against the machine when the middle bracket was on, but it did, then I had to make sure that the other would rest up against the machine as they are for downward support and did not want the board to tilt downwards.

Here is the finished product and I must say I am very happy with the result, there is no tilt sideways, but it does tilt forward and backward some, but will have to try it in a drive to see how it fits in there and how much side clearance the board will have, then I may make it a permanent fixture so it cannot move by drilling a 1/4 inch hole in the side of the rear bracket where it rests against the machine and put bolt in there, this will stop it from tilting, but as I said I have to wait and see how it works out in the drive, but so far they are looking good.

Here I am about to start this new prospect drive to see if there is any trace of material (potch) or opal in this direction, but first as you can see I have to remove some rocks that are in the way, these were thrown here when I was hand mining, so I did not have to break then up with the electric jack pick, never though I would have to move some of them again. There is also a lot of Jasper rocks here as well that have fell down the shaft over time and also that got knocked down when the big shaft was drilled, they are solid rocks like Granite and if the cutting teeth was to hit one they could break so have to make sure they are taken out, I only have to move the big ones and the solid hard ones, the machine will take most of the small stuff out, so on with the job.

Lucky for me there is an old drive next door so I do not have far to throw or carry the rocks, this is as much as I needed to move by hand, although it does not look like much here they are scattered and not in a heap, so there are a few, took me about 2 hours to get almost to the face.

Here we are just about there, all of the big stuff has gone now from in front of the machine, so tomorrow I will be tunneling, if I find some trace in here I will do some more drives to the left and more rocks will have to be moved by hand into this drive, if I don't find anything this will be the last drive I do in the area, then it will be time to move on up the claim.

This is the new Pre-Cleaner for the generator, it just had a rain cap on it, which was no good anyway as it is lying on its side, don't know who though that would work and as far as stopping the dust well it had no chance and when the wind blew this way from the hopper or dump, the dust blew straight into the air intake pipe and filter, now this will stop some of the dust from getting into the filter.

Here I am fixing (again) an oil leak, I have done this twice already, first it was the O-Rings or so I thought, but it turned out to be another connection that had a O-Ring in it that was gone, now I have another from a hose connection, I removed the hose that I thought was the problem and it was not that at all and although it was new I did not want to put it back on now it has been disturbed so I have a new length to put on again and the hose that was the problem turned out to be right next to it, the trouble is that 3 hoses come together and are connected via 3 way piece, so the one that was leaking from being cracked leaked down onto the new red one, took me a while to spot it.

The hose in question is the red hose you can just see on the right, this is the one that I thought was the problem, but it was one next to it on the left, cannot see it here, but you can see how packed things are in there and the hose that was leaking is under the where the arrow is showing right down the bottom, very hard to see it properly, but as I said I managed to find it at last and no more oil leak from there.

Now I am well into this new drive and you can see that the running board on the side is just right, have enough side clearance, the only thing I have to do is to stop them from tilting forward and backwards, not that they can go far, but I want them so they don't move downwards at the front and back, after I have finished this drive I will drill and put the bolts in I was talking about earlier above and so far no trace or opal in this drive.

This is the end of the drive, the ground is getting very wet again, but I knew this would happen was just a matter of how far I could go and 14 and a half foot is it, not bad first time I have actually started and finished a drive in the same day and I only work in the mornings, this one took me two and a half hours to do, then I started having problems pulling the dirt so I knew that the elbows was blocking up and was time to quit the drive and as I had found no trace of opal, no point in continuing.

I drilled the holes in the brackets and machine for the running boards, but as I got the machine into this drive the left hand board was catching on the side wall as the floor was not level and the side wall had high spots in it and as the board could not now move up or down freely it had a chance of breaking, so I stopped the machine and took the 2 bolts out again and all was well. Now it is on to plan "B" I will have to weld 4 x 1/2 inch lugs on the machine, one under each front and rear bracket so that the board can move up but will not be able to tilt down when I stand on it, did not do this before because I have to borrow a small welder and welding mask and take it down, more work involved but has to be done now. So as you can see I am back up that drive I had connected to the next shaft I am about to move onto, but had not finished opening up around the shaft so I can start tunneling a new drive, so here I am just starting to open up on the left hand side of the shaft, I have about 26 feet to do from the beginning.

Here I am at the end of the drive, it is 3 feet short, the ground got that hard that the floor cutters was having trouble cutting through it and as it is only for more room to turn the machine around in there is enough now so I quit, now to clean up in-between the drives where the arrows are so I don't keep knocking my head when walking and working around the shaft area, even where the arrow is on the right I still have more to take off until it is level with the back of the drive.

Of course what you have at the top you also have at the bottom, but as I do one I also do the other as the machine travels forward, you can see in this photo the hard ground in the left hand corner it is very hard Alinite and Soapstone, if I was and still may do a drive in this direction I would drill 1 or 2 about 3 foot deep and blow this hard ground with explosives, just to break it up, but attacking it from another direction it may not be that bad and normally this type of ground is not big in diameter.

Here the machine is cutting the floor it has not reached the roof part yet, it is running on automatic, in other words the control, handle stays where I put it and cuts at that speed, I have a control knob that allows me to shut off some of the hydraulic oil pressure, so I can control the forward speed of the machine if I want to do this, I don't use it in this wet ground, but would in dry, I also have a control knob on all of the other 3 controls as well, this photo shows you that I have plenty of light in front of me, 2 x 500 watts.

This is a shot looking back to the pipes and ladders, the red rope on the right side is for the revs on the blower, there is another blue one (just see it on the floor) that is for shutting the butterfly and opening the hopper door, it is not this light in the drive, but will be when I get the 3 lights set up along the left hand side and connected after I have moved the blower,

Here is the shaft in the roof that I am about to move on to, it is 83 feet back to the one that has the ladders down and I think about 90 feet to the next one I will be driving too.

Here is a photo of the opening up 'Ballroom' as it is called from just outside of the drive,. about another hour of work and I will be finished and ready for moving the all of the pipes and equipment.

Here we finished, the floor has been leveled by hand using the dirt that is throw to the side when cutting, I shovel most of it in front of the machine when it is cutting so it gets taken up to the hopper but near the end I leave it so I can use to level off some spots, as it is impossible to do all 3 drives cutting the floor at the same level, so loose dirt does the trick, the machine is in position and facing the direction I want to go, may have to do a slight adjustment on the angle when I have set everything up, just don't know if I will be tunneling straight forward on this level or going up to the next one.

The distance between the side walls directly in line from under the shaft is 14 feet, so I have plenty of room to move the machine around and connect to the back of it when starting off new drives, now to move things and then I have to go down this next shaft before I start working to see what the levels look like and if there is anything of interest on the level above, if so I will start the drive going up to the level, open up around the shaft again on that level and do a few prospect drives to see if there is any opal around, if not I will be back down to the level I am on now and I cut some skin shells on the 74 foot level (the one I am on now) in this shaft when I drilled it, so there may be more around in the area and hopefully some seam opal or some verticals. Just for some of the readers that don't know I turned 64 on the 24th of this month, I tell you this just to let you know that this mining is not just for the younger generation, you can do this when you are getting on in years, there are miners here that are in there Seventy's, not ,many but a few and plenty in there Sixties, so hopefully if the body will last I have a few more years in front on me yet. The hard part is that I work by myself and as you get older some things get a harder to do by yourself, right now I can ask one of my friends to give me a hand when I need one and that is when I have to move the blower, but this next move I will be trying by myself. just to see if I can do it, the hardest part is the tunnel machine electric cable, when moving tie a rope onto the  cable then let the down the shaft which is the easy part, but then I have to go underground with a flashlight as the lights have been disconnected, then I have to drag the end connection up the other drive to the next shaft. Then I have to tie the rope back on the cable and go back up top and pull it up so I can connect it back on the generator, that is after I have moved the blower and got it in position and this is where I need a hand as the cable is very heavy for one man to pull up a 80 foot shaft, but this time I am going to try and use the loader to pull it up, so we will see how it goes and you will find out in the next issue. My wife Patricia has been sick with the flu this past week and I have been home with her so I have done nothing on the claim about moving the rest of the equipment and the weather has also been cold and the last 2 days the wind has been blowing so is not good weather for me to work up top in, but will get back out there  as soon as and get back into it and should have some more good photos next issue for you. 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, but only time will tell, 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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