[Dedevil]

There's a large amount of gold and money for anyone attempting this but it's all no good if your DEAD! So as i'm doing a safety course at the moment i thought i should share some safety knowledge on shallow lead shaft mining.

So Rules for detection

No. 1 Does it exist = Yes
No. 2 Is it safe = No.

DEATH CAN AND DOES OCCUR! But what a way to go!

I spoke to a local who told me the last death was around 1950 when a bloke was chasing the bigger nuggets deeper and about 1000 meters away. He cut in TOO deep in his drive with no support and the top caved in on him.

So the 1 st safety concern is cave in.

Where i am working is 14 feet / 7 - 8 meters so a bit shallower but still dangerous enough to kill. A cave in will put around 3 - 6 tonnes of dirt on you.

So as a mining professional i just stop and use my control methods.

Can i eliminate the soil above me = No
Can i substitute the soil above me = No
Can i engineer a way around the soils above me = Yes

The use of support "toms" or " squeeking trees" have been around for ages.

A tom is just like a car tyre jack but can only be used on hard rock reef mining. As this is loose old river soils i'll use "squeeking trees" Funny enough i cant find a picture of squeaking tree supports on the internet.

Simply wooden tree trunks get cut and one end sits on the hard bedrock and on top the loose soil is stopped by planks of wood which the trunks gets jammed into. Any movement in the soils above causes the grain of the wood at the top of the stump to rub with the plank. The pressure and movement cause a sound of "eeeeeeekkkkk" if there is any movement between the grains of wood and tells you to GET OUT.

Next hazard is bad air

Can i eliminate = Yes

A branch of a tree with leaves tied onto a rope and pulled in and out of the shaft is enough to elliminate most bad gasses. Well at least where i am working.

Next hazard is going insane while spending all your day underground.
I just elliminated by radio and long antenna to the surface and up a tree.
But to any newcomers be carefull. Explosive Gases can occur underground and mobile phone transmissions are not the way to go. As occured resently in a New Zealad coal mine where all the workers were killed just after a txt transmission one man sent to his wife saying "love you" as he went under ground. Transmission in these enviroments are like the "click" spark lighters on a barbeque.

What else?

Clear safety glasses are a good idea.

That will do for now.

rgds