May 31, 2007 Opal Mining Update - No 73 Lost the Shaft and still Opening Up

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Went back to work after that rain we had, cost me a week off and I had trouble starting the old truck on the Monday, it always had been a pain after having a few days off with getting the fuel to flow though to the carbie, but this time it was worse and took quite a while but finally got it running and then off I went to the field, did my days work and came home, then the next day went and checked the oil and water as it does use both and have to check it every 4 or 5 days and top them both up. This time when I took the oil filler cap off I could see that there was water in the oil, the top of the cap was milky, so that was it for the old truck as far as I was concerned, time to look for another work vehicle, this one was 35 years old and I did not want to spend any more money on it???? So that was the start of the Month and not a good one for me straight off, in fact it has not been a good start to the year so far, not many fish on our holidays, had to buy a new outboard motor for the boat on the old credit card, then Pat had this bad turn and now Pat has had another bad turn on the 3rd of this month, again it was at the Post Office, but this time she felt it coming on and went and sat down straight away, then she asked one of the workers there to give me a ring, so I shot down there again and found her in a terrible state, the table she had her head on was literally wet through with sweat and again she was very pale and gasping for breath. But at least she was sat down, she did not want to go to the hospital, but I talked her into it and when she had recovered enough that she could walk out with my help I went off to the hospital, but as I get near it she changed her mind as she thought that they would just give her a shot to bring the heart back into rhythm again like last time and then let her come home, but I explained to her that was not going to happen they would keep her in again, so she wanted to go back home, and that is what I did, by this time she was almost back to normal. As I said in the last newsletter Pat had developed a rash and the Doc here had stopped her taking the Aspirin, then it was the tablet for the heart and she had been off this for 5 days when this attack happened, so this was the problem, when she got home she took one of these tablets straight away and made an appointment with the Doc again for the next day, of course when he found out he was not happy that Pat did not go to the hospital and for him to get to see her, if she has another she must go to the hospital, again Pat was back at work the next day and so far she is OK as nothing had happened, but the rash is still there at this time, so it is the heart pill. The Doc gave her some more pills to stop the rash, which worked but now Pat is back on the heart pill again the rash has come back so it was this pill now pat is waiting the see the Doc again, hopefully he will be able to find another pill that can regulate the heart with out this side affect on her. As for me I had to spend best part of 2 solid days looking on the internet for another work truck, I found a few but all were in the Eastern States, except for one that I located here in South Australia, but it had no photo with it, rang the guy up and asked him what it was like etc, told him it had to have reliable engine and a good tray body apart from that it did not have to look like a million dollars and he said that he would send me one via email that night and I am still waiting so must have been a  rust bucket as it was by the sea. So I carried on with the other ones I have listed as that I could afford, well with the help again of the old credit card, all were in Sydney and the first I rang up about had been sold 2 weeks earlier, the next was sold just 1/2 half hour before I rang, don't you just hate that missing out by 1/2 an hour, real bad timing on my part and the next was only for spare parts but they forgot to mention that in the add, still my crystal ball is in for cleaning so my fault again. Then 4th time I got one that was there, all of it, wanted $8000 for it but got him down to $7000 if what he said it was like was true I would fly over and buy it and he said that it was all that he said it was, so I booked a flight out of Coober Pedy for Adelaide on the 6th and out of Adelaide for Sydney on the 7th, cheaper staying in Adelaide for a night so I believe but now I have paid for that night I am not that sure anymore, still cost me $110.00 for the night and for a single which was not a single but a normal double room with a single bed in it also, so not cheap at all, was right next to the airport, probably why it was called the Airport Motel.

This is our Airline that travels in the bush, was upgraded not long ago, we used to call it the Pencil, not that I every used it this is the first time I have flown out of Coober Pedy, but my wife has been on it a few times and she told me that everybody of normal height had to crouch down to walk into it and it had a single row of seats on either side of it, this had a single row on the side you can here and double seats on the other side, which turns out to be the side I am going to sit on for this fight.

The sun is shining in the wrong direction for this shot, but that small building just at the rear of the wing is out airport terminal, not big by most people standards but does us, this plane fly's in and out of Coober Pedy 6 days a week, but never on a Saturday for some reason.

Here we are just taking off so I am going to see if I can take some photos of the opal fields as we circle around and head for Adelaide,  as I said I have never flown out of here before so this is a first for me as well, so far so good.

That road you can see just off the wing is the main hwy down South to Port Augusta and what looks like opal working is in fact dugouts, now you can see why we do not have a mailman here or mail delivery service at all, all mail is pick up at the post office, the road you can see just below the back of the wing is the road out to Porch Gully, the road out to William Creek is a long way down the main hwy from here.

Now the town is coming into view, that large circle of green on the far right is on what is called the "Oval" and it is on the "Triangle" it has not been built that long and has grass on it for playing games for the kids here that is watered by used water, now can see more opal fields in the distance, the field called Black Flag is where the black opal came from in the old days long before my time here and before they started working this "Allen's Rise" field some 50 kilometers south of here, which is producing some Black Opal that is surpassing Lighting ridge black opal without a doubt.

Now we get to see the town of Coober Pedy, I live where the arrow is pointing, right across from the green oval, easy for me to pick it in the photo, my opal field which is 11 mile is well into the horizon, at the bottom of the photo gives you a better look at some of the dugouts that are out of town in the Potch Gully region.

Anyway the motel came and picked me up from the airport and took me back there at 5am in the morning to catch a flight out at 6am so did not have to spend $40.00 on taxies I would have had to do if I went away from the airport so turned out not that bad after all, it was what is called a No Win Situation, dammed if you do and dammed if you don't kind of situation, anyway then I was on my to Sydney, this vehicle was in a Car Yard and he said that he would pick me up from there, just to give him a ring when I was at the airport as he was on 10 minutes away from there and that is what I did and what happened, he was there in less than 10 minutes and off the car yard we went. So got to the car yard and it was that type of dealership that if I lived there I would walk or drive past it, a real sleazy down in the dump kind of place, so I thought I was up shit creek here as I never brought any back up phone numbers of another 3 that I could have perhaps got a look at if I could have found them, so I inspected the vehicle and found that very little had been done to it to make it more presentable for  sale like they do in the decent car yards, like detailing etc, anyway we got it out of the corner that it was in and I took it for a test drive and I was surprised it went very well, engine had plenty of power and all lights worked except one, so I bought it, he had to get it licensed for the road as it had run out of registration while sitting in the dealers yard. So by the time we had been to the mechanic, bank, vehicle registration I was ready for leaving Sydney and head back home, but how to get out was another thing, finally when I was buying a map at a service station I guy overheard me asking questions at the counter and offered to help me with his local map which was outside in his vehicle and then when he was doing that another guy overheard us and said he was going that way to and past this road I had to get to the get out of Sydney called Parramatta Road and that I should follow him and when I got there for me to turn left and that would take me to Dubbo and on the Broken Hill etc, nice guy so I followed him for a few miles and sure enough we came to this road where I turned left to head for home. And so here is the new truck, slightly used and abused as they say, done 154,000 kilometers and is a 1992 model, 15 years old, the old one was a 1974 model, so this to me is like having a brand new truck, it drives very well and did burn a bit of oil for the first 12 hundred kilometers but I don't think it has been run for a while, after that it has not used any more oil for the last 1000 kilometers so all is well.

Needs a few small things looked at, like the mirrors and one rear mud flap, the one you can see here needs to taken off and straightened, but I think I will take it of and get two new ones made here, apart form that it is in very good condition for a work truck that is 15 years old, I am very pleased with it, considering where I got it from, I am lucky as I think I got a good deal this time.

The tray is 13 inches wide that the old one and about 4 inches higher which is a help for me with the winch, now to get it set up for mining then we can go back to work............

Now to take all of this off and put it on the new one, then clean this old truck up and put it up for sale, still worth something to someone, glad to be rid of it, was getting sick of the old girl and did not like the double tires at the rear have give me a lot of trouble over the years, the only good thing about them was that when I got a flat I did not have to stop and change it, just drove in on the other one and took it to the repair shop and got it fixed, now if I get one I will have to stop and do the change over, but is was because of the size and that there was two of them that I got a few flats a year.

And here it is all done, except I still have to get a piece of channel iron 800 mm long then drill 3 holes it so it can fit underneath the tray body and the chassis it will then when I am using the winch it will take the weight off the  tray body which is only thin aluminum and flexes too much when the winch is bolted to it as it is in the photo, on the old truck if you have a look I have a cable that went from that bolt on the  top of the winch support bar that run down the rear of the drives cab, this gave me the same support, but do not want to have this cable in my way on this truck so will set it up different and better, as this truck can carry 2 tons and has a stronger chassis so I can do it different. Also need to fix up the side mirrors on both side as they have at some stage had the bottom support brackets ripped off and have been bolted back on in the wrong position, I could not use the drivers mirror all the way back from Sydney, not a big job and then it will be ready.

Back at work and here at this stage I am still not sure which line is the level as yet, one minute I am and then I am not, so will keep going until I get to the shaft or some material comes in the face and that will tell me which is the level for sure.

Here my Mate Dave and a friend of his that has come to visit from Melbourne, I was asked if I could take him downunder so he could have a look at what we or I do and Dave is the man that gives me a hand most times when he can when I need one, I was only too happy to do so, funny part is that in all of this tunneling so far going up to and including the leveling off and to this pint, I had not been working for more than 5 minutes this morning when we saw a piece of material in the face on the left hand side, so that line at the top is the level and before I had finished for the morning I saw 3 more bits of potch in the face nothing big, but enough to let me know I am on the right track so far anyway.

Well I did not hit the shaft so looks like my direction was out some, now have brought the pipes back and have had to put them at the top of the drive as there is no room up here as yet and is a bit tight but not for long, I am about to start another drive to open up to the right, but I have missed it to the right left I am sure about that, but by how much I have no idea, still I have to get on with the job and worry about that later, I will find it later.

Now we are away with this new drive, the old one was 108 feet in length as far as I could measure and the shaft is 94 feet from the shaft below that I have the pipes down so I am well past where it is or should have been, here you can see that I have some Gypsum come in the face again and is slowing me up with the cutting as the teeth tend to catch on it if I try and take to much of a bite into the face, so I have to slow the rotation of the cutting head, gives the teeth time to cut this this stuff and not get caught or jammed on it.

Where the arrow is on the side wall is a nail and that is the 94 foot mark from the shaft below, trouble is that this ground is still very hard and it is slow cutting so will be glad when t is all over and I hope it is worth the effort, very hard on the machine and teeth this ground, when I have finished this drive and brought the machine back, I will then have room to walk around the machine and carry out some repairs to it.

As I told you before the oil seal behind the outside cutter was leaking again and need to be changed and here is the cutting plate, the blades I put on it have worked as they have kept the bulk of the dirt away from the seal area, but nothing can stop the fine dust, so now I will change the seal again and clean this plate up and change the teeth over before I put it back on as I have to knock them out through the 1/2 hole in the back of the plate where the arrows are.

Now I are doing the maintenance that is badly needed now I have room to get around the machine, see how the teeth have worn just doing this drive of 108 feet and this last one, just shows you how hard the ground is, also this wear is on the other pieces of the equipment as well, fan, elbows, telescopes, pipes etc.

The oil seal is the dark area in between the 2 arrows, I only have to put the screw driver in there and take it out then clean it up and fit the new one back in and bolt the cutting plate back on so is not a big job, now to put one liter of oil in after I have finished, grease up the machine, 6 places and sharpen the middle 3 cutting teeth and I am finished for the day.

Back in action again and starting the drive to the left and a bit squeezed for room as you can see, my back gets very cold standing here at the top of this drive, as my shirt is wet through with sweat after jack picking in the side wall so the cutting head can start rotating, so it should not be long before I hit the shaft, tomorrow for sure as I will not be able to do the footage today in this ground, I did the repairs yesterday, still I am on my way to finishing opening up and moving the equipment to this new shaft and start looking for some opal.

Here I am slowly turning the machine to go round a corner and make the drive go further to the left so I can pick up the shaft and hope that I hit it more on the right side of the drive so I will not have to do another drive to have enough room to turn the machine around and head left, but I have to have a certain amount of space from the shaft to the side wall for the machine so I will be able to connect to the pipes to start tunneling again in the direction I want.

You can see here that I am really starting to turn the machine left, I have never turned the machine at this acute angle before and will have to turn it even more yet, so in fact I am still learning what I can do with it, not that I want to do this that often, but I will have created quite a bit of a ballroom when I have finished this drive also it will leave a pillar that will have to be taken out to finish the ball room off.

More bloody Gypsum has come in the face and again I have to slow the rotation of the cutting head down as it has already jammed on this Gypsum because the head was going too fast to allow the teeth time to cut through it, its a pain I can tell you.

Here we have Soapstone starting to come in the face and this is hard for cutting as well, makes a crunching noise when the teeth hit it, but just under those two round pieces towards the middle some material has come in so I am going to have a pick at it and hope for the best.

On closer inspection it has some green to it, so thought I would give you a look before I started digging under it and take it out, but it did not lead to anything again, so carried on with the drive.

This shows you how I have turned the machine to make it go round a corner, there is no quick way with this round machine when in a drive where there is no room to turn the machine as I would like it other then to do it like this, then I have to jack pick the side wall so I can get the cutting head to rotate and start cutting, then I have to go forward an inch and then put the left hand brake on to tune the machine a bit and then go forward again another inch or there about and so on until I have turned it enough to go in the direction I want.

Now you can see just how wide I have gone and the pillar that is being left, do not normally go this wide when opening up and leave a pillar like this, but in this case I had no choice, this is at the end of today's shift and the shaft is or should be not far in front of the machine, so should hit it next time working and I say next time working as we have had another bit of rain, not much but I stay home after it has rained just in case it is wet on the field, with the cost of fuel today it costs me just over $10.00 to go out to the field and back in petrol, so better not to go out unless I know I can do some work, also I stay home some days and work on the Web Site, like working on this Newsletter so I am always busy, but not here underground, different if I was on opal, would not miss a day.

More material has come in the face so this is the level for sure, nice to know, but still no shaft as yet but still have a few feet to go yet.

No color this time just a bit of potch and again no sooner was it there than it was gone, oh well on with the drive.

Now I have 4 lines across the face and the top one is Gypsum the second line down is the level, should be close the the shaft now or so I hope.

Now this is what I have been looking for, you can see clearly here that there is a change of color in the ground and in-between is the level, even if you cannot see anything in the face this tells us that it is the level, pity this change of color in the sandstone is not everywhere.

I have gone that far round the corner I have had to put an elbow on the pipes which I do not normally do when just opening up as at the angle from the elbow at the top of the drive in not that great, but this time as you can see is different I have lost sight of the machine it is so really round a corner, don't realize myself until I came back and had a look.

Well I have no idea what has gone wrong this time with my direction, but I have missed the shaft again, because I have gone so far to the left I think it must be in that pillar, where the machine is now is the end of that drive for now, it is 2 feet shorter than the one next to it, so it is 106 feet out from the shaft below and well past where the shaft is supposed to be at 94 feet out, so now to bring the machine back and start taking the pillar out on the next shift.

Here I am taking out some of the roof so I can start the cutting head rotation, as you can see the head will not go through the sandstone it must have clear space in front of it for it to start cutting, so I have to make this space for it, this is what I have to do when I turn the machine in the drive to get it started, only this is lot easier as I am in the open and have plenty of space to work in, when turning the machine I am cramped in-between the machine and the side wall and work up a sweat which is why I have to wear that jacket to protect my back and kidneys from the cold. Mind you once I get a few feet into a drive it gets rather hot in there as there is no air flow to speak off and as hot air rises what there is in the claim rises up to this level and cannot escape, the twin 500 watt lights and the hydraulics when it heats up make it hot in front of me but at my back it is cooler so I have to wear this jacket, when I get to this shaft it will be cold as it will let the air flow down and cause a bit of a draft for a while until I can get away from it and back into a drive again, then it will be only the back again.

Now I am away and taking out the pillar and making head room, tend to still bang the old head when moving across the drives where this roof sticks down a bit if I forget which happens to often, I am making good time here for a change, should finish this today hopefully.

Well I have done 18 foot today and the shaft is not here, so this is drive is finished for the time being until I find it, don't know what the hell went on with my direction, first time I have ever missed a shaft and not just missed it but out by a long way, has to be more that 10 feet and that is a long way when only going 94 feet, equates to about 10% out or more. I think I may have the answer why I am out so far, the compass that I use is not bad, in fact it is a very good compass but like most compass's it doe's not like being near metal so if I take a reading up top I am near the down metal pipe from the hopper and the elbow plus the hand winch over the shaft, then underground I have to stand next to the bottom telescope and elbow plus the tunnel machine is in front of me, so the reading are not accurate, but should be the same as the readings top and bottom are taken near metal. But as a back-up most of us miners put a piece of wood across the shaft on the hand winch and from below that gives us the angle that we want to go I and this is what I used for this drive, but also what has happened in my case is that I used to put to much dirt up to the hopper before I would dump it as I used to do it every six inches I tunneled, I was told by a friend of mine that I should dump it every three inches so less dust would go through the fan, so when I was putting more dirt up as the hopper got full, the back of the blower truck dipped down and when I dumped the hopper the truck sprung up and moved the piece of wood that was across the hand winch. Once I had started the drive using this piece of wood as the direction I did not double check it again as in checking the piece of wood up top, I have now but it is to late as it has been moved during the last few of months while I was on holidays or after, but I can only think that this is the reason, will make sure I am right next time for sure by double checking, what makes it worse is that

So have brought the machine back and have to start another drive to the left, so if I thought I had turned the machine a lot for the last drive now I have to do it even more as I have no idea how far this shaft is to the left, right now it would have been better if I had missed it on the right, but I am sure that is is left if not more money wasted.

Here you can see how I slowly turn the machine again, this is a very acute angle but working out ok, will have to put that elbow on again when I get far enough round the corner, I do hope this is the last drive I have to do, but depends on where I connect with the shaft, if it is on the right hand side of the drive I should be alright, if its on the left hand side I may have to do another just to give the machine enough room to turn and face the side wall so I can start the new drive.

Makes it hard when I am only prospecting at the moment, I have to do this to be on the 62 foot level, I do not like this ground on this level, as I have only ever cut a bit of potch in one of the shafts I have drilled in the claim, all of the material has been on the bottom level where the ironstone level is and is wet ground, but I am interested in a area to my left on the other side of a fault or mine slide. So when I have found the shaft and finished the opening up (soon I hope) I will be breaking down the machine to do some repairs, one is I have to take this chain sprocket out again that is leaking the oil and get a new one made or see if I can get it repaired, but that will require me to find some one in Adelaide to do it which will take a 2 or 3 weeks, I should think. In the mean time I have to repair that fan that I took out with wear holes in it, Ross has got me 2 packets of Hard Facing Welding Rods, so I have to cut new blades for it and weld them in then I will hard face them, that will take about 2 or 3 days, also have to make a new radiator pipe for the blower, Ross has also got me 3 elbows along with the welding rods ready for making it, also have to get a new telescope made for down below, the one there now on the end of the down pipes is worn out so I have discovered this week, the jobs are just piling up along with the cost. Then I have to change over the fans and then I can hard face the fan that is in there now, it is starting to get some wear on it already, I have to tighten the fan belts that drive the fan, about 1/2 hour job and the radiator on the loader needs to come out and be repaired, it may also have a water leak for the water pump seal not sure as yet, So as you can see I have plenty to keep me busy, along with working on this newsletter this one would have taken me about 6 hours or so to put together and then I work on the web site putting new items in and I have also just finished designing a new page look for the web sit, I decided it need a face lift, just like I gave this newsletter one, some time back, so as I said I am always busy I do spend a lot of hours every day on this computer. 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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