Mining must move foward

Winter 2010 So much for finding the big tourmaline pocket in the 100th anniversary year. A let down but the pegmatite looks very promising for next year. There is the possibility of Otto's pocket having tourmaline in the bottom. In the adjacent Berry quarry some of the tourmaline pockets had large quartz pockets above them.

 With the onset of winter and the colder temperatures it was time to start working on the overburden. Finding the smoky quartz pockets at the end of the season has got me excitied and I want to be ready for spring. I have been working in a trench and would need to widen this out if I was going to be able to work the mineralized zone. Right off the final drive broke on the excavator. This was not a good ending to the year. The final drive is was turns the track on the excavator and these are very expensive to replace. If you are careful you can hobble yourself around as long as you don't need to go to far. I was going to use this approach until it got closer to spring and it would be closer to going on a paying job. Some winters we can't mine much due to  the weather so I wasn't too worried about this.

No, this is not a piece of modern art, it is the track off of the excavator.

Started to work blasting the overburden at the end of December. At the beginning of January we had a spike int the temperature for a few days with some serious thawing going on. This was just what was needed as I was able to dig off some of the dirt overburden and expose the ledge that would need to be drilled and blasted. Loose dirt on top of the ledge does not go well with drilling holes for blasting. Sometimes it plugs up the drill if you aren't careful and then it has a tendency to fall into the new drill hole. Alas the snow moved in and I just came up for a weekly visits. The snow continued to pile up and decided I would need to wait for it to melt before I could do much work. The abutting property owner decided to cut much of the timber on his property which my access road goes across. He made a pretty good mess of things and did some damage to the road and drainage which would need to be dealt with in the spring. They said they would take care of it, needless to say they never came back. Although they didn't clear cut it, they did take out a tremendous amount of what was standing which took away much of the buffer between me and the neighbors. As with most places civilization is knocking on the door to the mine, creeping closer and closer as time moves forward. If you want to mine and be successful you are going to need to blast. The rock needs to be moved and blasting is a necessary evil, the closer the neighbors the more difficult this becomes.

Recently cut area, the mine is just behind the pines at the rear of the picture. The hill in the rear is adjacent to Mount Apatite, home of the world famous Pulsifer Quarry purple apatites. So much for the quiet meandering drive through the woods to get to the mine.

As it warmed up and the snow started to melt, blasting of the overburden resumed. As the pile got larger it starts to become demoralizing realizing that it all needs to come out. What I would give for a dump truck driver. Some of the material had some natural fractures causing it to come out in some very large pieces. There was one piece that probably weighed close to 20 ton and was much more than the excavator could lift. Much of the larger material usually comes from the outer zones of the pegmatite, is very hard and does not break easily. After dropping some fairly large rocks on it, the extremely large piece was broken into 1 ton pieces which were easily moved with the truck and excavator. Some people drill and blast these but it can be loud and  where I have close neighbors I take the quieter approach.

I get tired just looking at having to move it all.

Some of the last snow to leave as it is in a shaded area.  Spring is almost here.