Show underground work wo rk in bingham M mines ines WRITTEN FOR THE MINING REVIEW BY LEROY A PALMER afons and afons ago a great mass of volcanic matter attempted to force ats its way from the bowels of the earth to the surface failing in this it nevertheless heaved the surface into a huge irregular donle dome and the tremendous forces which drove it upward rent it into innumerable seams and cracks this eruption occurred in a great mass of through which dynamic action took place splitting it into cracks as in the intrusive body which was mo monzo mite some portions being subjected to a greater force were rent into fissures of great and unknown depth in which veins lime formed into these cracks and f fissures mineral bearing solutions came slowly filtering through the rocks and depositing their precious content or working into the bedding planes of the limestone dissolving it out in lense shaped masses and depositing their mineral in the cavities so made and one day man discovered this the world to this place olf great undertakings expert mining of the highest kind and advanced metallurgical practice to bingham utah laccolite Lac colite of the great dome or technically technically speaking laccolite lac oolite colite of presented a favorable steam shovel proposition and at bingham the first steam shovel mining of copper ore tion bingham stands in the first rank in the same class with the copper mines of lake superior and the famous Rand deeps the first property to make a commercial success on the low grade copper ores of the formation was the utah copper company while this is known chiefly as a steam shovel mine twenty per cent 0 of the ore that goes to its two large mills is ex ei w 1 X y jt W 9 A 8 vr view of the yampa smelter at bingham utah photo hj by will C higgins storehouse of nature and set to work to convert to his own use what the great forces had placed so convenient to his hand but after the rich surface deposits were exhausted it was found foun d that this great wealth was to be hard won it was a struggle of mans ingenuity against nature and the successful outcome of this struggle has heralded a new copper camp and turned the eyes of in the west took place but it is only rarely that a good steam shovel mine is to be had as it is generally the case that the most of ohp ore must be won by the more laborious and expensive process 0 of f underground mining the low grade of the large deposits of bingham has taxed mans ingenuity to solve the problem of cheap mining but it has been solved and for economical opera ra r a c t e d underground methods method s of a most advanced kind this property lies on both sides of bingham canyon the deposit on the west being worked by the steam shovels and on the east by a combination of two underground systems milling and caving the underground work is in charge of john macdonald who learned mining in the lancashire iron mines and was the first man to cave ore in america introducing this in the big norrie in northern michigan and later at the golden gate in mercur the system referred to was devel aped by him to of the utah copper company and has proved most successful the lower tunnel forms the main haulage t level being Z placed a sufficient distance above the bottom of the canyon so that the loaded trains may be run over the ore bins and unloaded by gravity As the underground der ground work is carried on with the view of eventually turning over the deposit to the steam shovels this tunnel is made of sufficient size to carry standard gaugle gauge railroad tracks underground systematic underground workings above this lower tunnel main levels are driven at intervals of feet and between each pair of main levels there are two sub levels at intervals of thirty three feet from these levels and sub drifts crosscuts cross cuts are driven to the boundaries of the deposit so that the whole is divided into great rectangular blocks raises are then put up from one level to another these raises being driven on an incline excepting for the lower thirty feet the object of this is to provide a chute for the ore in which it will not pack which is invariably the case when n a great mass of ore especially when moist is run rum into a perfectly vertical chute from each main raise three branches will permit then when the pillars show signs of failing a few holes are put in fired and the place left to allow the pillar to break down of itself which I 1 it eventually does tumbling its ore down the chutes when the pillars are left timbers are placed across the chutes at the sub levels in such a manner that they can be closed together to form a bulkhead in the upper portion of the mine production was once crowded to supply the mill before the steam shovel operations were in full sway sivay and here timbers have been used As it is only necessary to keep the workings open while the ore is being extracted this timbering is only light round pieces largely purchased within the state and does not form a serious item of expense expense ore from mine to bins prom from the main chutes the ore is loaded into two and one half ton side dump cars W K ka A timbering in the yampa mine aboto p ay iy leroy j A palmer are driven one at the back and two at th the e sides and from these branches other branches are driven so that one main raise frequently has as many as eight or ten branches emptying into it breaking down ore A series of raises being completed the actual work of breaking down the ore is commenced A round of holes boles is put in around the collar of the raise or branch and the ore shot down to the bottom of the raise where it is loaded into hand cars and crammed to the raises to the lower tunnel level this shooting down is continued until the ground becomes too steep for the men to work and this portion is then left and the pillar of ore remaining is attacked by driving a raise from below the process Is repeated as described as aa long as safety which are hauled in trains of eight by an electric locomotive to the main ore bins A spur of the denver rio grande runs under these bins and delivers the cars for haulage to copperton hopperton Cop or garfield across the canyon from the underground mine are offices machine shop compressor house etc the machine shop is equipped with all the machinery necessary for repairs to locomotives steam shovels etc in the compressor house is a nordberg cokliss Coir liss valve two stage compressor inches driven by a two speed horsepower motor and a direct current generator for supplying the electric haulage system the method of mining described would seem rather dangerous and no doubt would be in the hands of an unskilled superintendent but under the direction of a skilled man it is perfectly safe as is shown by the fact fa that since january 1 1908 the utah copper company has had only one fatal accident the ohio copper adjoining the utah copper on the south is the property of the ohio copper company which is just coming to the front as a COD r 0 o 1 per producer this property lies chiefly in the quartzite formation which includes two fissure veins the alls well and what cheer these veins carry values of a shipping grade in the form of and from the main ore bodies of the old cOrn company pany but under the new company attention has been devoted chiefly to developing the immense body of mineralized quartzite which contains in sufficient quantities to form an excellent milling rock to handle this immense deposit the ohio has built a 2250 ton concentrator at lark and has purchased the mascotte tunnel which has been extended to connect with the ohio incline the rhe latter is a two compartment s shaft haft with a pitch of fifty degrees connecting the surface near the canyon with the mascotte tunnel thus affording an outlet from the canyon to the concentrator at lark on the other side of the mountain the shaft is 1400 feet on the incline and 1075 feet vertical and the tunnel is feet long the system of mining resembles very closely that of the utah copper company and was in fact adapted from the method in vogue at the latter the office compressor house blacksmith snap etc are at the mouth of the cunningham tunnel which forms the main entry from the canyon main levels are driven at intervals of feet but as the quartzite will stand in larger masses than the the sub levels are spaced fifty feet apart three main levels are being driven by contract from the mascotte tunnel to the level from which branch raises will be driven to the capping each main level is bein being divided into rectangles by parallel drifts feet apart and each of these blocks is to be further divided by a drift so that eventually the whole deposit will be divided into rough cubes fifty feet on a side these drifts and levels are all to be carried out to the property lines or to the boundaries of the deposit the method of extraction is the same as that described for the utah copper the ote ore will be shot down around the collars of the raises the pillars will be honeycombed by more raises fand nd finally the remaining or ore comes down of its own weight ore run by gravity the ore will run by gravity to the M bills bin cotte tunnel where large underground switch 5 are built to receive it here a motor will be busy loading cars and auw a t up trains for the big motor to haul thirty disc dist allt a time to the mill three miles these cars are of the most mast up to date pa tern they are five tons capacity all steel double coppered hopp ered bottom and provided with automatic couplers t the ohio has two compressor plants one at the mouth of each tunnel at the mascotte is a ingersoll rand two stage I 1 driven by a horsepower motor and at the cunningham are rand two stage and a chicago pneumatic tool company two stage driven by 75 and horse power motors respectively these compressors will be held in reserve when a new one already ordered is installed this is an in gerroll rand with a two speed horsepower motor it was planned to install the latter at lark but the change to the cunningham tunnel was decided upon on account of the decreased length of the transmission lines the ohio shaft is equipped with two and one half ton skips working either independently or in balance and a horsepower electric hoist |