newbie

lxbruce · 07 Oct 2013, 3:11 pm

hi all just signed up. been into this stuff for awhile mostly old buildings and the odd tunnel ( i'm an underground miner). Just dusted off the old camera after not being used for a number of years and am keen to get back into some photography. i'm based in the hunter NSW. Cheers

zebulon · 07 Oct 2013, 3:32 pm

Hmm mine tunnels.
I've never actually witnessed one in person.
What are they like for the uninitiated?
Dangerous or a walk in the park?

Oh and welcome

lxbruce · 07 Oct 2013, 3:36 pm

never go in an old mine dude, methane, co2. When our pit loses power we can get gassed out at the face in about 30 min with the fans out.

zebulon · 07 Oct 2013, 3:40 pm

So you would need SCBA and/or ASM at a minimum and someone like you, who's experienced in the environment for there to be a reasonable level of safety ?

lxbruce · 07 Oct 2013, 3:46 pm

If its an abandoned mine i wouldn't take one step in. the condition of roof and ribs plus flooding would be very unstable. but a CABA unit is want you would need.

zebulon · 07 Oct 2013, 4:38 pm

Hmm damn.
How would you from your experience classify abandoned when it comes to a time scale ?

lxbruce · 07 Oct 2013, 4:59 pm

a hour after they close the mine. Our mine get inspected every shift ( 3 in the case of ours) and the belts every 24hrs they check tell tails which indicate roof movement, inbye and outbye of the face, monitor o2 , ch4 etc in the entire working pit. remember when the ventilation gets turned off ch4 will rise straight away. there maybe natural ventilation in some areas of the pit.

zebulon · 07 Oct 2013, 5:13 pm

Wow, really is a dangerous industry.

lxbruce · 07 Oct 2013, 5:18 pm

its really no different from any other type of job in construction. they all have their dangers

zebulon · 07 Oct 2013, 5:20 pm

Maybe, yet at least you can walk onto a construction site hours later and not worry about asphyxiation or a collapsing roof!

lxbruce · 07 Oct 2013, 5:54 pm

if i build something you might need to watch for collapsing roofs

zebulon · 07 Oct 2013, 6:03 pm

LOL good point, I'm the same

blakjak · 08 Oct 2013, 8:35 am

lxbruce wrote:never go in an old mine dude, methane, co2. When our pit loses power we can get gassed out at the face in about 30 min with the fans out.

Some old mines are safe and legal to 'tour'. Plenty at Broken Hill.

lxbruce · 08 Oct 2013, 9:23 am

just talking coal mines. your right with hard rock mines they are safe but not coal mines without ventilation. the guys that tour sewage drains would also understand the dangers of ch4

Scarecrow · 09 Oct 2013, 2:01 pm

Welcome, Bruce. There's a few guys around from the Hunter.

RooMar · 09 Oct 2013, 4:12 pm

Welcome mate,

I was up in your area a couple of weeks ago, Heaps and heaps to do up there.

Looking forward to seeing some shots of your adventures.

Midget · 23 Jan 2014, 5:25 pm

Welcome to da forum. This thread has firmly convinced me not to go into abandoned mines without some experienced people around. I was way keen before.

zebulon wrote:Maybe, yet at least you can walk onto a construction site hours later and not worry about asphyxiation or a collapsing roof!

Thank god for that.