Erik has updated the Raccoon mask blog with calamities of 2010. its a really good read, and get you up to speed with the disasters that befell him last year.

You can always find the link to it on the right hand side, under my links.

Well,

on monday i flew down to ely after being home in vancouver for 4 days, after a previous week in ely. Now im here for the next 20 days, well, as of monday. Then ill be back in vancouver for 10 days off, and i might be doing this rotation a few times.

WHY? do you ask? Well, we are looking at starting a new pit. the problem is, its actually an old pit, and we are trying to determine what is down there, and how to mine it. Myself and 2 geologists from sudbury are here with me. Luckily its super interesting, and could mean a lot for our company if we can get this working, obviously.

so, lets see, what sort of adventures have i been on since getting here. My time here has mostly been spent at my desk, figuring out initial options for mining.

Other than that, i started back up at the gym yesterday, much to my sore body’s dismay today. but i’m excited to start up a solid exercise regime again. i don’t have much else to do in the evenings.

So here are some pictures!

Flying into Salt Lake City

we have had some wonderful weather here! this was one of the mornings this week.

the hotel nevada, in downtown ely

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.