Parish Notice: Andy, over on his blog, already did a great write-up of our trip to Myra Falls Mine, but I thought, more as an adjunct, that I'd add a few more pictures and comments...Maps courtesy of Andy.
Last Thursday evening, after school, Andy Paul and I rode up to Campbell River, me on the DR650 and him on the Thruxton. I'm not sure how he did it without a heated vest, as it was quite chilly after the sun set, despite the hot coffee residue from Starbucks North in Nanaimo. My legs were shivvering by the time we arrived, although my core was warm. That was one of the strangest feelings I ever had: hypothermic knee caps; warm chest...On the way back the problem was solved by putting on my waterproof sailing pants over my jeans: perfect!
From Starbucks North to Campbell is approxomately 135 km; we did it at about 100-110kmh the whole way. It was super comfortable on Suzi Q, as I had a pack strapped on the tray and could lean on that...A fairing would have been nice though!
The next day, up bright and early, we set off to a Middle School, where we parked the bikes and met our fellow teachers and the excellent driver. Prior to the bus's arrival, we mused on the type: would it be a yellow knee-cap cruncher or something more luxurious for the hour and a half trip to the mine past Buttle lake? As it turned out, after parking the bikes it arrived: we had lucked out. It was a luxurious coach.
There are lots of lakes and trails to explore en-route to CR, but it'll have to wait for warmer seasons...Stratchcona looks particularly appealing...
I used to camp at Ralph River on the very south-western end of Buttle Lake during the summers over from England. I remember when I was 15, a man telling me that the fish were not safe to eat in the lake because of the copper residue from the mine. He then gave me the huge slappers that he caught, and being 15 and immortal, I ate them. They tasted better than anything I had caught before!
We had to pass the beautiful Myra Falls to get to the mine; Andy and I had ridden there a few years ago as a side trip from Gold River.
On getting to the mine which is now owned by a Swiss company (Nyrstar), we decamped the bus and made our way into a room where we were briefed on the geology, history, and background of the mine. It's quite a unique mine in that it is located within a Provincial Park (Strathcona). While the Mine was started in 1966 well after the park's creation, the mineral rights were acquired by private individuals in 1911 well before the park was created, and, for whatever reason (I leave your minds to take on a cynical bent here...), the provincial government of the time, while appropriating all the timber rights and every other right you could name, didn't appropriate the mineral rights. What this meant, as far as I could surmise from the chief geologist's quick overview, was that once the park was created, only the current owners of the mineral rights could establish a mine within the park boundaries - sans competition...And that once the mine was closed, then it could never be re-opened again. Curiously, the Mine, by rights is not actually on land that is part of Strathcona Park; instead, it is located on what is called Westmin-Strathcona Park which is a small enclave completely encircled by Strathcona Park itself. Westmin was the original name of the company that owned the mine (Westmin Resources); it would be interesting to see who was on, or related to, that board of directors...I'm sure if one digs deep enough (excuse the pun) there's an intriguing chase through the dark alleys of personal gain, double speak, and government corruption. But I'd better stop there, as I've probably said enought to get my name (which is Andy Dods), thoroughly slandered.
Below are the pictures I took...with some captions...
Above: Yours Truly, Geared up with lights, breathers, overalls and boots...At least you know what you will have to wear; no bother picking out clothes!
Above: The elevator shaft, which we would later descend to about 400m below the ground in...It's the only way in and out...
Above: Stepping out of the cage into the mine at level 21...
Above: The diesel powered vehicle that we would travel in through the mine tunnels. Much of the tunnels are lined with a concrete aggregate and/or gauze to keep rocks and such from falling in...
The front end of said transport...
Underground Maintenance Depot...these vehicles will never see the light of day again...
Corners like this are why some vehicles are articulated...
A million dollar drill only a few months old and already recently renovated, after getting blown against rock after being situated too close to the charges in the face...A sage reminder that this is dangerous and expensive work.
Peering towards the face after a recent blast and drill session to extract the ore from the seam: this was mostly copper and Zinc. The apparent globes reflecting back is dust - lots of it. And while we were issued with hard hats, ear plugs, boots and goggles, we were never issued with respirators or masks. In fact, none of the workers seemed to have them either. And, despite being told that the air quality was good, the stench of ammonia (explosives) diesel (vehicles) and the obvious dust in the air, I wouldn't be surprised if workers suffer from some horrible chronic respiratory deseases in later life.
Looking through the dust at the face. Here much of the over-burden is hauled away by a massive, articulated grader looking vehicle and dumped down a hole/shaft. Then the ore is taken up and thence by conveyer to the processing plant...In the picture you can also see the makeshift gauze used to protect the pneumatic drillers who are picking out the seams with explosive holes...
Blasting up, using painted grid-hairs to direct where the chartes will go in order to hit the seam...
The Grader returning from the face with...
...The overburden. The vehicle was bloody noisy, and you could feel your innards vibrating...
Christ the joy of coming up after being in that bleak underworld...Colours! How'd they get that tree to grow out of that little cart?
The tumblers in the processing plant, where the ore is crush-tumbled with...
Steel balls...If you ask me, all those miners have 'em...
And here's the copper being chemically flocculated and floated out of the rock-ore, which sinks. Believe it or not, this is done at the ambient temperature of the incoming Myra River water...a process which is faster in the summer than the winter for obvious reasons.
All in all it was the best Pro D I've ever had; I think Andy Paul agreed too. Well worth the trip. And the best part was the ride back...
Paul
Great post! Very informative.
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