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Round two of mine pics......a few other pieces of equipment and some clearer mine shots.....

R

Rob/Windsor Ont.

New member
This is an undercutter. It cuts the floors of every heading. It's blade is fourteen feet long and the operator will cut from one side of the face to the other with it. Every face gets cut and drilled before it is loaded with explosives and blasted.[attachment 28455 DSC02039.JPG]
Here is an operator changing his cutting bits on his blade.[attachment 28456 DSC02037.JPG]
This is called a jumbo drill. The operator drills a forty hole pattern into every heading/face with one of these. There are four panels or working areas underground and every panel has it's own undercutter and jumbo drill. These units run on a 550 volt system. Again, had better pics but kB's too high. Sorry ![attachment 28458 DSC02053.JPG]
This is anfo or powder rig. The silver container tanks on the platform hold the anfo or blasting powder. These machines are used for loading the heading faces with explosives.[attachment 28461 DSC02063.JPG]
This is the newest version of a gradall. The extended boom has a large pick on the end of it and these are used for scraping loose pieces of salt off the ceilings and walls. And occasionally, some pretty big slabs.[attachment 28462 DSC02065.JPG]
And the new and modern version of our lunchroom. The older lunchrooms were literally cut right out of a wall of salt. Sorry about the pic quality. This was my first attempt at photo's underground. All the best to you, my friends. Rob
 
Thanks for the pics Rob. They look pretty good to me! I used to run a 601 mustang drill rig when the interstate roads were built. All air powered. Depending on the rock, we could run in 80' of steel in about an hour.

Dave
 
The pictues are very interesting. Those rooms are huge!
 
n/t
 
There was absolutely nobody else on the river and I had a ball. My belly is burnt though. For the same reason that Willys nose would be burnt I suspect. There are sure a lot of fish in the holes
 
When we were younger, a few of us would go for rides on the midnight shift to view some of the old workings. There would be the occasional cave-in in which you could view several layers of the earth's make-up. Some of these cone shaped drops would show about one-hundred feet of different mineral layers up in the ceiling. No doubt there would have been some neat things to see in that rubble but we didn't want to get too close !!
 
by all the great picures in both segments that you wrote. It looks like a whole other world down below.

Thanks for taking the time to share with us.

Lil Brother:)
 
I didn't even know how to use our digital camera let alone post pictures on a forum. How lame is that ? But, this was my first time at both and I'm going to get there one step at a time. I'm going to post a pic of my clan soon too. I'm sure Willy, Mike, Royal, Wayne, Orlando.....let me see....who else have I picked on.....let's say just about everybody'll be licking their chops and prepping their photoshops for that one.:lol::lol:
 
Nice people don't anyway :D
 
This is the salt that you buy at the grocery store, correct?

Interesting that you cut the equipment up and lower it into the mine, and then re-assemble it...but, I noticed that you do the repairs in the mine. What fuel do you use to run the equipment and trucks? If you use fossil fuels, how do you address the exhaust fumes? How do you keep rust off the equipment? Sorry for all the questions, I just find this interesting.

Does it ever scare you being underground in that mine? Do you folks have "cave-ins" like they have at some of the coal mines?

I love looking at these photos...never seen a salt mine before. Thanks for posting this photos and the story. I wonder if Royal can find a way to save this and move it to the top with the other stories? Please have a great day! Kelley (Texas) :)
 
It is a few miles away. They flush water down into the salt vein and it returns in the form of a brine. It is dehydrated and purified from this point. You may have noticed from a few of the pics that there were "vertical", darker colored lines in the walls of salt. These are mud lines and this and other impurities are removed from any table salt. As for the mine itself, our product is used for every purpose but consumption, although occasionally the crystal or clearest form of salt is sometimes used in the curing of meats and salt licks for animals etc. The salt is screened in the mill on surface and separated into grades. Water softeners are made of the purest grade. A large percentage of the salt is used as a chemical additive. The lowest grade is what is commonly referred to as road salt. We load lake freighters at our facility that average between twenty and thirty thousand tons per pop. The fuel used to run the underground equipment is diesel. There are two huge jet fans that draw in fresh air at the man shaft (#2) and after circulating through the mine, which has been somewhat enclosed through a series of bulkheads (older areas blocked off by heavy tarp fastened in between openings) and is exhausted out the shaft (#1) through which the salt is hoisted to the mill on surface. There are also several large fans throughout the mine that help to direct the airflow and keep it circulating. As for rust on equipment and tools, they hold up surprisingly well, all things considered, provided they STAY underground once they are brought there. Once on surface, they are rendered useless in a matter of days. Cave-ins have occured in some of the no longer worked areas of the mine (looking up into them shows you an interesting view of the earth's layers) but have been non-existent for the last twenty or so years, touch wood. The ceilings are monitored fairly closely every time a face/heading gets drilled. Three feet of ceiling salt is the desired safety margin and any areas thought to be a future problem get roof bolted. Believe it or not Kelley, I am claustrophobic to the point of not being able to sleep in a tent but being underground doesn't really bother me. Go figure ? The salt mine is infinitely safer than a coal mine and much cleaner, though we do get salt dust on us at times. Any coal miner would trade places with us in a heartbeat !! My biggest fear being underground is the scenario of being at work during an earthquake. If the shafts ever collapsed, there would be no way out. You would last till whatever food ran out and fresh air. You would probably last for quite a while, I would think. All the best to you Kelley and I hope you and Roger can secure permission from "ole' misery" for that site !

Rob
 
When I was a kid, we used to play in the coal mines of Cumberland. Those were good times but now I can see just how dangerous it was.

Sunny skies

M
 
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