Sunday, May 3, 2009

Shaking hands






Another one that doesn't seem to make much sense. Looks like the truck has backed off the edge of a small hole, which it has then filled with its load.

3 comments:

Ron N said...

This an underground stope collapse - a common problem when you are opening up a new open pit over old underground workings - where records are poor, or non-existent.
If large stopes are known to exist, from old underground workings plans, they are delineated and worked around.
The other problem is when underground workings maps are known - but when there has been an underground fall or collapse between levels.
Most stope collapses generally just mean a hole opening up in the floor, which is rarely big enough for a whole item of equipment to fall through. However, you don't want to look down, you can often see a large cavern. Most stopes in oxidised ground (surface to approximately 30-50 metres in Australia) aren't large - but they're dangerous because of the inherent ground instability. Once you're down into the hard rock, stopes are larger, but the rock is stable.

Anonymous said...

B.M.A Blackwater no underground workings below . bull hole from blasting so they say .

Grimmy said...

Ron this is not an underground stope collapse ... there are no underground working at Blackwater Mine ... maybe get the story next time before jumping to a misguided conclusion. This was a bull hole.

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