Mine operation questions

[Mike369]

I have been in a few mines out to Ophir recently and have had a great time exploring but it has got me curious about how the mines operated back in the day. A lot of the mines have ore shoots in them. I know that these were use to quickly move ore down from one level to the next. Did they move the ore down these shoots to a certain level then bring it up the tracks out of the mine? Or if they sent the ore down does that mean there is a lower entrance to the mine? I'm just curious because I see ore shoots going up and down from basically the main level of the mines. Once they got the ore out of the mine would they put it in trucks/wagons or would they process it right there?
Also in the Utah Queen there is about a 45* down shoot that has cart tracks going do it. I'm guessing they used a winch of some sort to raise and lower the carts. What has happened to the winch system? I would love to learn more about how the mines operated and what the daily operations were. I think that if I knew how the mine operated it would make the whole experience better. If there is some literature that I could read or that you recommend let me know. Thanks.

[Joanne]

Re: Mine operation questions

Hi Mike,

I'm not as experienced as many on this list so their responses may differ from mine.

The ore chutes come from a stope and feed down to a location where a cart can be placed under the chute to let gravity to the hard work of loading the carts. I've been in mines where the adit is at the lowest level and the workings above that level. Each upper level fed down into the next lower level. I've also been in some that have been worked downward from the adit and use winches to pull the carts back up to the main level.

Here's a winch that is inside a mine right at the top of an inclined shaft.




This is a chute that is positioned right over the inclined shaft.




This is what you see looking down from the stope into the ore chute.




If you want to see all the photos from this mine, click here: http://www.asolidfoundation.com/mines/mine_home.htm
then click on the Accident Mine.


Ore processing also varied from mine to mine. Some large mines did a lot of refining on site, others had a stamp mill on site to crush the ore before sending off to be refined. Others yet had no facilities at all and had to ship all of their ore to be refined.


There are a lot of great books, but I really enjoyed reading a book by Will Meyerriecks named "Drills and Mills...Precious Metal Mining and Milling Methods of the Frontier West”. It covers a wide range of mining topics and is a great introduction to what mining out here in the west was all about.


Joanne

[rhartill]

Otis Young has written two scholarly volumes on mining in the West:

Western Mining

http://www.amazon.com/Western-Mining-Otis-E-Young/dp/B000PHV2TG/ref=ntt_at_ep_dpi_3

and

Black Powder and Hand steel

http://www.amazon.com/Black-Powder-Hand-Steel-Machines/dp/0806112697/ref=sr_1_9?ie=UTF8&qid=1287088253&sr=8-9

A FREE publication that provides an excellent overview, with drawings of the different ways mining is conducted is found in

Anatomy of a Mine From Prospect to Production:

http://www.fs.fed.us/geology/anatomy_mine.pdf

Of course tagging along with MU members like Harley can be the fastest way to gain an education of how it was like in the good old days!

[acidman1968]

Re: Mine operation questions

I have been in a few mines out to Ophir recently and have had a great time exploring but it has got me curious about how the mines operated back in the day. A lot of the mines have ore shoots in them. I know that these were use to quickly move ore down from one level to the next. Did they move the ore down these shoots to a certain level then bring it up the tracks out of the mine? Or if they sent the ore down does that mean there is a lower entrance to the mine? I'm just curious because I see ore shoots going up and down from basically the main level of the mines. Once they got the ore out of the mine would they put it in trucks/wagons or would they process it right there?
Also in the Utah Queen there is about a 45* down shoot that has cart tracks going do it. I'm guessing they used a winch of some sort to raise and lower the carts. What has happened to the winch system? I would love to learn more about how the mines operated and what the daily operations were. I think that if I knew how the mine operated it would make the whole experience better. If there is some literature that I could read or that you recommend let me know. Thanks.

A lot of the ore from the mines near Ophir was processed at smelters that were located near Stockton. Other ore was shipped by steam ship north across the Great Salt Lake to Corinne to the processing facilities there. Other ores were shipped / hauled into the Salt Lake Valley to be processed at the smelters that used to be located there. Ores were hauled by wagon, cart, tramway, train, etc. to get it to the processing facilities.

I'd suggest you pick up a book called "Some Dreams Die: Utah's Ghost Towns and Lost Treasures" by George A. Thompson. He includes a lot of the history of the state in that book - mainly about mining camps, pony express stations, overland stage stops, railroad stations/towns, etc.

Oh, and a lot of the ore from Ophir was processed just outside the mouth of Ophir Canyon. If you know what you're looking for, you can see the remains of the "tailings impoundment" where the waste material from the process was dumped.

[Kiel]

Just got my copy of that in the mail today for 14 bucks, I can't put it down

[acidman1968]

Just got my copy of that in the mail today for 14 bucks, I can't put it down

I even went so far as to buy one of those map books of Utah, and found almost all of the areas Mr. Thompson talks about and marked them. Oh to have the time and finances to wander around the state to all of those locations...

[Mike369]

Thanks for all the great info. It looks like I am going to have to buy some books and read a little more. Also when is the next get together? I think it would be great to have some of this stuff explained as I am looking at it.

[ExpUt]

Some great book suggestions already, another I would suggest is 'Drills And Mills: Precious Metal Mining and Milling Methods of the Frontier West'. It does a great job covering the process from the face to the customer.

[Mike369]

So I went into a mine this weekend that I'm not sure of the name of. But that's not the question. I found a side tunnel that looked to be a dead end. Upon looking around I found a small hole (maybe 2 feet in diameter) just big enough for me to fit through. It had a hard air line running into it. I crawled through and it opened up a little but I still had to crawl on my hands and knees. After about 50 yards of crawling it finally dropped down into a regular man size tunnel (something like 6 feet tall and wide). It then opened up into an upward incline shaft that was inaccessible without a ladder. Then one decline shaft that was too steep to walk down and climb back up. I couldn't see the bottom and I couldn't see any ore chutes. This last part of the tunnel was about 100 yards or so long. The question is this: Because of the small initial opening into this part of the mine do you think this mine connects to another lower level and the ore is taken out there? I would imagine that this mine connects to another mine and they took the ore out that way. What do you guys think is most likely? When I get a climbing harness of my own I am going to drop down this part of the mine because there was a good breeze coming up this shaft.