well, im slow to post these days i guess. i was back a week in vancouver after my sudbury trip, and now im sitting in ely nevada again. how was the sudbury trip you ask? well, being there was great! its a pretty big town, 130,000 people, and it wasnt too cold when i was there. it did snow a fresh 5cm the day i had to leave, but anyways.
getting there and back was horrible though. i flew air canada through toronto. my connection on way there was messed up, and my bag didnt make it to sudbury with me. it did arrive later in the day and was waiting at the hotel when i got there later that night. but then, on the way home, the flight was late leaving sudbury again, missed my flight, got on one 2 hours later, which was fine. at least noa surprised me at the airport, which was great. but then we waited and waited for my bag, and again, nothing. ohh air canada. it arrived later that night.
so, anyways, lets get to the exciting stuff, underground.
so, here is us waiting for the elevator to take us down the shaft
once underground, we took a bus to the faces we were going to have a look at
alright, heres the good stuff. this is pure chalcopyrite. about 38% copper
its pretty amazing to see this underground
this is a diamond ddril hole which is leaking water from surface, 7000ft up
here is the really high grade copper, bornite, about 70% copper
the group of us
everyone inspecting the end of a tunnel
yay for tripods
the rock breaker
yours truly. dont i look awkward
my second favorite picture
here is the hoist cable for the skip in the shaft
the headframe
i dont tend to like b&w, but i thought this was somewhat stark
it was about -12C outside, so the air comoing out from underground which is really humid creates a nice fog
here is what drill core from a diamond drill looks like. this is from another mine we are looking to develop.
this is what a diamond drill looks like
and a pano of thie site
as always, i haven’t posted all the pictures. follow them thru to flickr to see them all.
overall, i had a great experience going underground again. i had not been since university, and its really cool to see our sudbury operations finally, and to meet all the people who work there for us too.