Posted on 12/03/2014 10:11:45 AM PST by JimSEA
Shaft #10 at the Resolution Copper mine in Superior reached its final depth of 6,943 feet (2,116 m). The 28-foot diameter shaft is the deepest single lift shaft in North America, according to the company. [Right top, bottom of shaft #10. Photo credit, Resolution Copper]
The Resolution mine would produce an estimated 25% of the nation's copper for the next 40 years once it's completed. [Right bottom, headframe for shaft #10. Photo credit, Nyal Niemuth]
"The completion of this 1.3 mile deep vertical shaft is truly unprecedented in North America,” said Tom Goodell, General Manager of Shaft Development for the Resolution project. “The safe completion of the project represents a great engineering achievement, and I am particularly proud of the team -- made up mostly of miners from this area -- who made it happen.”
Development of the underground is dependent on a land exchange that needs Congressional approval.
They have some good videos on their mining technique at:
http://resolutioncopper.com/the-project/underground-mining/
It can't begin to compare with the shaft we are being given by both the political parties in concert with a Marxist president. JMHO!
I was thinking of deep oil wells, but yours is even bigger!
Imagine an economy where the FedGov didn’t impede everything it touched. How in Gods green earth could operations a mile underground disturb anybody?
Said the hydro-fracturing crew...
Will Obama condemn this polluting exploitation of America’s underground treasures, take credit for this American accomplishment under his watch, or say “You didn’t build that.”
When I was at Superior, stope mining was the time tested technique. However, over half of my career was spent at San Manuel, also part of Magma Copper at that time. Block caving was the mining method used there until the oxide ore was leached in the subsidence zone. It was kind of weird looking down at the foundations of homes I’d visited and played at in Red Hill slipping lower and lower in the cave zone. Resolution, like San Manuel did, is going after the porphyry deposit.
Feds are also holding up nuclear waste isolation in Nevada, as long as Harry Reid is their senator.
Instead, spent fuel sits in unsafe swimming pool storage at plants around the country. Unsafe as in Japanese nuclear plant unsafe. Fuel storage is as much a risk as the reactor containment.
Actually, the block caving operation will cause a subsidence zone at the surface. They will be caving the ore body down into haulage levels and taking the ore from the bottom.
—interesting—unless hoist cable spec’s have changed , that depth with single lift is getting close to the limit of a safety factor of 6, IIRC——
fascinating. great pot.
i wonder how the cooling is done? do the miners wear special suits or is the entire mine cooled? and what about the equip? operating at 180 degrees?
—and thanks to many years of anti-nuke propaganda in the Nevada media, getting Yucca Mountain going again will precipitate a political battle like Nevada has never seen before-—
Yeah, a single lift surprised me. The original mine had numerous sub levels and, by chasing the high grade veins, looked like a rabbits warren. The old and new mines have a lot of big differences. The source of the copper was in the porphyry deposit but the high grade was in hydrothermal veins. Bornite was a common ore and, at 65% was directly smelted after bringing the grade down actually.
—fascinating—having spent the most productive part of my life as a miner and boss at the Climax mine in Colorado—
Thank you for this.
That’s a beautiful area, Picketpost Mountain, etc.
Is this the mine they were writing about?
Yes. That’s the one.
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