School of Mines

“ He also reported in the same year on a Venezuelan goldfield, and from 1869 to 1872 he was engineer to a gold-mining company in Northern Italy. In 1872 he was nominated Inspector of Mines under the new Metalliferous Mines Regulation Act, being appointed to Cornwall. Eight years later—in 1880—he was transferred to North Wales, where he retained for twenty-one years. In 1890, on the death of Sir Warington Smyth [q. v.] , he became professor of mining at the Royal School of Mines, an office which he held concurrently with his inspectorship. He proved an excellent teacher. ”

“ The attempts, more common a decade ago than now perhaps, to convert schools of mining and departments of mining geology into shops and artificial mines, do not meet with favor in his eyes. Vocational, or professional, training in universities should leave most of the actual practice to be gained in actual experience and work after graduation. If the student is well-grounded in the fundamental science of mining and metallurgy, in geology and chemistry and physics and mechanics, he can quickly pick up the routine methods of practice. ”

“ All really practical men will, I think, endorse Mr. Rauft's opinion. Well organised and conducted schools of mines will gradually ameliorate this unsatisfactory state of things, and I hope before long that we shall have none but qualified certificated men in our mines. ”

“ Schoolcraft informs us that although the mining business is much improved, there is still a great deficiency both of capital and of skill—there is in the whole district but one regular hearth furnace for smelting, and that not the best;—among forty mines, there are only four or five regular shafts—there is among all the mines, no engine of any description for raising water, and some of the richest mines with the best prospects in view, have been in consequence abandoned. Yet, under all these disadvantages, the annual produce of the mines is estimated at three millions of pounds of lead. ”

“ The pupils are required to examine carefully the railroads and the geological features of the countries they pass through, and to keep a journal of facts and observations. In the final examination, marks are given for every part of their work.
The mining engineers, when stationed in the departments, are charged to see that the laws and ordinances relating to mines, quarries, and factories are properly observed, and to encourage, either directly or by their advice, the extension of all branches of industry connected with the extraction and treatment of minerals. ”

“ A manager of a non-metallic open-cast mine in which industrial explosives are not used and minerals are manually exploited for use as common construction materials must possess a secondary degree in mining and have personally worked in open-cast mines for at least 2 years; those who have a secondary degree in geological exploration must have been trained in mining techniques and have personally worked in open-cast mines for at least 3 years. ”

“ The descriptions of underground workings that have now been given have, of necessity, been very general in their character. It is impossible, in a limited space, to describe the various methods and modifications of methods which are in use. No two mines, even in the same district, are worked exactly alike. Sometimes they differ widely in plan and operation. That system must be employed in each one which will best meet its peculiar requirements. ”

“ I’m taking you to the best mining state in the Union, where you can handle the stuff right on the ground, find your own lodes, study mineralogy with the minerals in your own hands,—so you will know carbonate ore when you see it. That’s half the battle; the technology of process work you can pick up right at the mines and mills. There’s lots of room for the young mineralogist who can go right along with his own saddle horse and outfit, take care of himself in a dry country, and know real lodes when he sees them. ”

“ Allowance must be made for the period of development during which there are no contributions to the sinking-fund and within which no interest is earned on invested capital.
Mining Education.—It is necessary to have the work directed by men thoroughly familiar with the characteristics of mineral deposits, and with wide experience in mining. For the purpose of training such men special schools of mining engineering (écoles des mines, Bergakademie) have been established in most mining countries. A student of mining must receive thorough instruction in geology ”

“ Our engineer cousins can, in a greater degree by study and investigation, marshal in advance the factors with which they have to deal. The mining engineer's works, on the other hand, depend at all times on many elements which, from the nature of things, must remain unknown. No mine is laid bare to study and resolve in advance. We have to deal with conditions buried in the earth. Especially in metal mines we cannot know, when our works are initiated, what the size, mineralization, or surroundings of the ore-bodies will be. ”

“ A description of iron mines will easily follow, and the children will delight to hear of the great shafts sunk deep in the earth, of the baskets in which the miners travel up and down, of the darkness underground where they toil all day with pick and shovel, of the safety lamps they carry in their caps, of the mules that drag the loads of iron ore to and fro, and—startling fact, at which round eyes are invariably opened—that some of these mules have their stables down in the ground below, and never come up where the sun shines and the flowers bloom. ”

“ For the gangway this cannot be done. As a rule the coal seam must be followed, no matter where it leads. And it often leads in strange courses,—in courses that at times curve back on themselves like a horseshoe and point toward the foot of the shaft. The mining superintendent or engineer never knows in advance just what tortuous course his main artery may take. He cannot go over the ground and stake out his line as a civil engineer does for a surface railway; he must build as he advances, not knowing what the rock and coal may hide in the next foot ahead of him. ”

“ To this must be added the consideration that nearly all the best work on the mines is being done by comparatively young men who have gone to them with the definite intention of making a living, and who have to use all the ability and energy they possess to rise to the higher positions. There is need now, however, of men of a higher grade, with, if possible, a college education and special training in some one or more of the departments connected with mining. ”

“ Superintendents have tried again and again during the past two years to obtain sufficient miners to take out enough coal to supply the market, but they have failed. So far as the mines are concerned, the hue and cry about competitive labor amounts to nothing. ”

“ The size of the blocks or the distance between the main passages is determined mainly by considerations of convenience and economy in excavating and handling the mineral, and by the possibility of supporting the roof long enough to permit the excavation of the mineral without unnecessary risk or expense. In metal mining, when the workable portions of the deposit are small and separated by unworkable areas, the levels serve also the purpose of exploration, and in such cases must not be so far apart as to risk missing valuable mineral. In coal-mines main entries are often 100 yds. ”

“ Roughly speaking, mining methods may be divided into two general classes: (1) surface mining or open work and (2) underground mining.
Open work is done where a small amount only of worthless material must be removed in order to uncover the deposit. This method is employed, for example, in the iron mines in the Mesabi range in Minnesota, where the ore is covered by glacial drift 10 to 100 feet thick. Such covering may often be stripped off with steam shovels. Where the ore is soft and friable, as in the case of some of the iron ore of the Mesabi range, it too can be removed by steam shovels ”

“ From the nature of things, metal mines do not, like our cities and settlements, lie in those regions covered deep in rich soils. Our mines must be found in the mountains and deserts where rocks are exposed to search. Thus they lie away from the centers of comfort and culture,—they are the outposts of civilization. The engineer is an officer on outpost duty, and in these places he is the camp leader. By his position as a leader in the community he has a chieftainship that carries a responsibility besides mere mine management. ”

“ A similar sacrifice in the shape of pillars is often necessary to support the surface, either to avoid injury to valuable structures or to prevent a flooding of the mine. As already noted large pillars must always be left to protect shafts, adits and the more important mine-passages necessary for drainage, ventilation and the haulage of mineral. In the early history of mining there was but little attempt at systematic development and working, and the mines were often irregular and tortuous. ”

“ Yes, all mines are owned by the general government, and the remuneration of those engaged in them is so liberal, so equitable, as to assure to them prosperity and contentment. At the entrances of the various great mines are enormously lofty light towers, whose several floors are devoted to educational and other purposes. In the schools some of Ento's foremost scientists of the past and of the present day have been taught electric and hydraulic engineering, geology, mineralogy and other specialties. Other floors are for living rooms, nurseries, hospitals and the inevitable Istoira̤. ”

“ There was then no restriction as to age, and girls were sent into the mines to labor at an earlier age than were boys, because they were credited with being smarter and more obedient. It was common to find children of both sexes not more than six years old working underground; and girls of five years were employed at the same tasks as boys of six or eight. They took the coal from the working faces in the thin mines to the foot of the pit. ”

“ In mining regions where water transportation is interrupted during certain months of the year the mineral must be stored underground, or in great stock-piles on the surface. In coal mining the market demand varies in different seasons, and surface storage is sometimes necessary to permit regular work at the mines. For coal, iron ore and other cheap minerals, mechanical handling by many different methods is used in loading and unloading railway wagons and vessels, and in forming the stock-piles and reloading the mineral therefrom. ”

“ When the coal has been blasted down and the props have been set the miner’s work is done; the rest belongs to the laborers. They must break up the coal, load it into the cars, run it down to the gangway, pile up the refuse, and clear the chamber for the next day’s work. The mine carpenters have laid a track, consisting of wooden rails set into caps or notched ties, as far up the chamber as the working at the face would permit. Up this [123] track the mule and driver boy have brought the empty car and left it at the face. ”

“ There were all kinds of work to do, and all sorts of new things to learn about mines and mining. The ore occurred in the rock in a manner different from that in any other known gold field, so finding it and getting it out, and then getting the mineral out of the strange new kind of ore, required resourcefulness, "original research," as the scientists say, and constructive [Pg 74] imagination. And the technical problems of discovering and manipulation once solved, there was still needed organization, system, and administration to make the mine a paying one. ”

“ Access to the buried deposits is gained by vertical shafts. Actual mining is now done to a large extent by continuous miners, machines which bore or rip the potash ore from the face and load it into shuttle cars in one continuous operation. The shuttle cars then transport the ore to conveyor belts which move it to the shafts for hoisting. Working conditions and safety are excellent and have led to high productivity from these mines. ”

“ As their open trenches and pits could be worked only in the summers, and by methods that made their operations much slower than those of modern miners, no great advance of their work was possible during the working time of each season; and yet remains of their mining works have been discovered wherever mines have been opened in our day; and, as previously stated, they are known to exist in heavy forests, where the modern mining works have not yet been established. ”

“ The tenor of published reports points to a scarcity of reserves, low metal content of ores, and difficulties in ore processing. The great majority of existing mines are said to have only enough reserves left for a few years' production. ”

“ In order to get a chamber from any of the large mining corporations, a miner must apply in person to the mining superintendent. He must come well recommended, or he must be known as a skillful, [224] industrious, and temperate workman. The responsibility of driving a chamber properly is not a small one, and mining companies choose to take as little risk as possible in the selection of their men. Having accepted an applicant for a chamber, the company makes a contract with him, usually a verbal one, to pay him at a certain rate per ton or yard for the coal mined by him. ”

“ The ore being extracted from its bed, it becomes necessary to bring it to the light of day, an operation which is of course of the greatest importance, and not seldom requires the aid of complicated machinery, particularly in coal mines, where large masses have to be conveyed as economically and speedily as possible to the upper world. ”