WEBVTT - How Underground Mining Works 0:00:01.080 --> 0:00:04.520 Welcome to you stuff you should know Frendhouse Stuff Works 0:00:04.559 --> 0:00:13.440 dot Com. Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark. 0:00:13.520 --> 0:00:16.600 There's Child's w Chuck Bryant looking chipper and bright eye 0:00:16.640 --> 0:00:19.840 and bushy tail. There's Jerry over there, she dressed like 0:00:19.880 --> 0:00:24.000 snow white. Some birds flying around the place. It's like, uh, 0:00:24.320 --> 0:00:26.120 all this stuff you should know. It's like Disney all 0:00:26.160 --> 0:00:30.319 up in here. Which, by the way, we learned the 0:00:30.400 --> 0:00:34.560 hard way. Um, welcome a dam Gilbert, so I'll mess 0:00:34.560 --> 0:00:38.519 it up again. That's good. So, Chuck, have you ever 0:00:38.560 --> 0:00:42.080 been inside an underground mine? No? Do you do? You 0:00:42.120 --> 0:00:44.360 remember an episode where we talked about what happens to 0:00:44.400 --> 0:00:48.280 abandon mine? Yeah? Boy, did we do a show on 0:00:48.360 --> 0:00:51.040 that old timy crazy old It was a good one 0:00:51.080 --> 0:00:55.080 if I remember correctly. Okay, yeah, and then we've also 0:00:55.240 --> 0:00:58.760 done one on mountaintop removal mining with Ben so Lee. Yeah, 0:00:58.840 --> 0:01:01.800 that was a good one too. Up, this one's totally different. 0:01:03.320 --> 0:01:05.880 Fracking too. Oh yeah, we did do fracking. What the 0:01:05.880 --> 0:01:08.200 frick is fracking did? That's what it was called. One 0:01:08.240 --> 0:01:12.000 of our better titles. Um, but this was totally different. 0:01:12.080 --> 0:01:14.959 This is underground mining. Yes, this is what people normally 0:01:14.959 --> 0:01:17.720 think of with mining rather than stripping the top off 0:01:17.760 --> 0:01:23.440 of a mountain or um fracking. This is this is mining. Yeah, 0:01:23.480 --> 0:01:26.800 and you usually um don't think about mining much as 0:01:26.840 --> 0:01:29.959 a regular person walking around on a day to day basis, 0:01:30.720 --> 0:01:33.840 unless there's some sort of accident, and that will usually 0:01:34.040 --> 0:01:38.319 cause regular folk to say, oh yeah, right, people still 0:01:38.520 --> 0:01:41.280 go underground in mine and it can be very dangerous. 0:01:41.360 --> 0:01:47.440 They're like, how terrible? Back to life like in two 0:01:47.800 --> 0:01:50.120 and Chile? I remember that. I know that one was 0:01:50.400 --> 0:01:53.800 huge while they got those dudes they did, and there's 0:01:54.080 --> 0:01:58.960 I think a movie coming out or already out. Uh, 0:01:59.040 --> 0:02:02.440 if I'm not mistaken Antonio Bandetas, Oh yeah, I think 0:02:02.480 --> 0:02:06.960 so too sexy. Yeah, that's a one sexy minor do 0:02:07.000 --> 0:02:12.320 you remember that? You don't remember the Antonio bandeis? How 0:02:12.320 --> 0:02:16.119 do you say? Yes, that's right, I remember that. Now? 0:02:17.000 --> 0:02:19.600 Did someone played him though, right? Or was he? Yeah? 0:02:19.600 --> 0:02:21.519 I'm sure he guessed it at least once. But yeah, 0:02:21.560 --> 0:02:25.120 I think it was Chris Ktan. I think exactly right, 0:02:25.320 --> 0:02:29.200 the least sexy guy of all time. Actually, we're sorry, 0:02:29.280 --> 0:02:32.840 Mr Katan, but it's true. I think he would admit that. No, 0:02:33.080 --> 0:02:35.760 I think he likes himself. He doesn't care what we say. 0:02:35.919 --> 0:02:37.680 What was that crazy character he used to do the 0:02:38.080 --> 0:02:41.239 like Mango? Yeah, that was very funny. Oh no, Mango 0:02:41.400 --> 0:02:44.480 is different than the monkey boy. Mango was like the 0:02:44.600 --> 0:02:48.560 super sexy um like Flamenco dancer down in Miami or 0:02:48.600 --> 0:02:52.680 something that like every people would like like give up 0:02:52.720 --> 0:02:55.680 their lives for it just a year around. Mango wasn't 0:02:55.720 --> 0:02:59.920 the one who ate fruit all right, I don't remember. 0:03:00.440 --> 0:03:05.120 God rest his soul? Who Chris Catin. I'm just kidding, Well, 0:03:05.240 --> 0:03:07.200 you can still Does that have to mean you're dead? 0:03:07.280 --> 0:03:09.800 Or can God just rest your soul like he needs 0:03:09.800 --> 0:03:12.480 a break. I think there's a sense of finality to that. 0:03:12.600 --> 0:03:17.640 When God rests your soul, you can still rest in 0:03:17.639 --> 0:03:22.920 peace by taking a nice nap um so yes. In Chile, uh, 0:03:23.240 --> 0:03:25.960 it was a disaster in two thousand and ten that 0:03:26.240 --> 0:03:29.040 uh turned out with a great ending because like I said, 0:03:29.080 --> 0:03:32.079 they're all rescued and um, but they spent sixty eight 0:03:32.120 --> 0:03:35.840 days underground. Yeah in a little room, crazy man. It 0:03:35.880 --> 0:03:38.520 would probably smell a lot like p when they were 0:03:38.560 --> 0:03:41.200 finally taken out of there. Yeah, it's a long time, 0:03:41.280 --> 0:03:43.600 I mean, and that's believable. I believe the room was 0:03:43.680 --> 0:03:46.920 designed as an escape room or something, so it worked 0:03:47.000 --> 0:03:49.240 like it it was supposed to. But they had to 0:03:49.280 --> 0:03:51.960 dig like an escape hatch. They had to dig down 0:03:52.040 --> 0:03:55.120 to these miners hundreds of feet under the ground. Yeah, um, 0:03:55.200 --> 0:03:57.520 which in and of itself put their life in danger, 0:03:57.560 --> 0:04:00.240 I'm sure you know. And that happened in two thousand ten. 0:04:00.480 --> 0:04:02.880 And Julia Layton, who wrote this article, points out that 0:04:02.880 --> 0:04:06.320 that was a as far as mining goes, that was 0:04:06.360 --> 0:04:09.640 a bad year. So there were those guys like thirty 0:04:09.640 --> 0:04:13.360 three were rescued, but a bunch of their compatriots were 0:04:13.440 --> 0:04:17.919 killed in that same disaster, I believe. Well, yeah, and um, 0:04:17.960 --> 0:04:20.560 I think she also makes a great point that, you know, 0:04:20.640 --> 0:04:24.479 the disaster gets all the headlines, but people die all 0:04:24.520 --> 0:04:29.440 the time, individually or in you know, several dudes at once. 0:04:29.880 --> 0:04:32.480 You know, that doesn't hit the headlines like a couple 0:04:32.480 --> 0:04:36.440 of guys die on the job in a day, and 0:04:37.520 --> 0:04:39.680 regionally you might hear about the news, but it's not 0:04:39.680 --> 0:04:44.760 gonna sweep the nation like a big disaster. And apparently, also, um, 0:04:44.960 --> 0:04:47.560 things like black Long are still around even though they 0:04:47.600 --> 0:04:52.200 shouldn't be. And I was reading you know that they 0:04:52.279 --> 0:04:57.880 these deaths although they're preventable. They are there the deaths 0:04:57.920 --> 0:05:00.480 of people who live in rural communities outside of the 0:05:00.520 --> 0:05:04.080 spotlight of the media, and so it still happens. So yeah, 0:05:04.279 --> 0:05:07.800 the point is mining, underground mining in particular is extremely dangerous. 0:05:07.839 --> 0:05:10.039 I have a question for you, though. I was looking 0:05:10.040 --> 0:05:15.000 at pictures of modern mining operations, and guys are down there, 0:05:15.080 --> 0:05:19.040 you know, without even like a dust mask on, And 0:05:19.080 --> 0:05:21.680 I'm just thinking that seems to be the most preventable 0:05:21.720 --> 0:05:24.400 thing you can do. Is where the like, weren't they 0:05:24.400 --> 0:05:28.200 wearing the things that firefighters wear, but the tank in 0:05:28.240 --> 0:05:31.480 the full mask, face mask. The closest thing I can 0:05:31.560 --> 0:05:34.840 come to for an answer is that the mine. No, 0:05:35.000 --> 0:05:37.400 the mine owners are supposed to have that place so 0:05:37.520 --> 0:05:41.360 ventilated that you wouldn't even need that supposed to I 0:05:41.400 --> 0:05:43.800 don't know about that. That's that, But I mean, like 0:05:43.880 --> 0:05:46.920 in the nine Congress said there should not be black 0:05:47.000 --> 0:05:49.760 lung anymore. We want to eradicated from the mining industry. 0:05:49.960 --> 0:05:52.720 Since then, seventy six thousand miners have died from black 0:05:52.800 --> 0:05:56.760 long um. But it's apparently it's totally preventable. It's just 0:05:57.000 --> 0:06:00.720 mine owners being cheap and or lazy. And I guess 0:06:02.000 --> 0:06:06.799 I mean when was this done? When did they? Oh? Yeah, okay, 0:06:06.880 --> 0:06:10.040 well you could have stats of people that theoretically started 0:06:10.040 --> 0:06:12.120 their career after that, and I'm sure you should not 0:06:12.160 --> 0:06:16.479 have black lungs, but they they're definitely people who weren't 0:06:16.480 --> 0:06:19.479 even born than that died of black long since man 0:06:20.279 --> 0:06:22.840 um all right, well we're talking about underground mining though, 0:06:23.000 --> 0:06:25.200 because as you pointed out to Jerry when she said 0:06:25.480 --> 0:06:30.480 mining and you underground mining difference. That sound like that. 0:06:30.720 --> 0:06:34.080 I've got a lot of self reflection into um. But 0:06:34.240 --> 0:06:37.800 surface mining is different, and that is uh, a very 0:06:38.720 --> 0:06:41.919 viable way to get or if you only want to 0:06:41.960 --> 0:06:45.280 go down and that's a top down op, that's like 0:06:45.360 --> 0:06:47.440 mountaintop removal. Yeah, if you want to go down a 0:06:47.440 --> 0:06:49.640 couple hundred feet, it's a it's a good way to 0:06:49.640 --> 0:06:54.200 get some or below that the efficiencies, um, it becomes inefficient. 0:06:54.240 --> 0:06:56.159 So they say, well, why don't we get down there, 0:06:56.560 --> 0:06:59.680 go to the working our way up. That's what they do, 0:06:59.839 --> 0:07:01.760 or least, you know, maybe just go get that big 0:07:01.839 --> 0:07:05.200 chunk of orbits a thousand feet down? And did you 0:07:05.320 --> 0:07:07.159 did you see this thing about kind of the early 0:07:07.279 --> 0:07:11.360 history of mining? Yah? So should we do that? Yeah? Man, 0:07:12.160 --> 0:07:15.200 the when you talk about going like a thousand feet 0:07:15.200 --> 0:07:17.880 down or how how far does the uranium mind go 0:07:17.960 --> 0:07:22.400 down to ft? That's mind boggling lead deep. That's more 0:07:22.440 --> 0:07:24.280 than a mile, right, isn't a mile something like in 0:07:24.320 --> 0:07:27.000 the neighborhood of five thousand feet? I have no idea. 0:07:27.120 --> 0:07:29.920 I think it is. It's something like that, right, So 0:07:30.320 --> 0:07:37.480 that's a very deep amount. But that's using like machines 0:07:37.520 --> 0:07:40.600 and mechanization, which we'll talk about. So if you go 0:07:40.680 --> 0:07:43.040 around the world and find some of these ancient minds 0:07:43.040 --> 0:07:46.000 like Roman minds or Egyptian minds, they were the first 0:07:46.040 --> 0:07:48.360 ones to really get into mining um, although there are 0:07:48.360 --> 0:07:51.560 prehistoric minds that date back to the Neolithic age. Them 0:07:51.560 --> 0:07:54.640 going down like a hundred feet or so, that's pretty impressive, 0:07:55.880 --> 0:07:58.480 and they're working in it's like something like three or 0:07:58.520 --> 0:08:02.600 four meters a month of an advance rate. Yeah, because 0:08:02.600 --> 0:08:05.840 they're using pick axes. They were using picks and slave 0:08:05.920 --> 0:08:10.440 labor and prisoners and prisoners of war criminals basically, so 0:08:10.480 --> 0:08:13.720 that conditions, as you would imagine, were terrible because they 0:08:13.720 --> 0:08:17.360 didn't care ahead and I will just go conquer another 0:08:17.480 --> 0:08:23.240 land and make them exactly. But as that um source 0:08:23.320 --> 0:08:26.400 of employees dried up and they had fewer and fewer 0:08:26.440 --> 0:08:30.400 prisoners of war because they conquered everyone. They said, well, 0:08:30.440 --> 0:08:32.160 maybe this is a real job and we should make 0:08:32.200 --> 0:08:37.320 it safer. Yeah, like paid some probably still like unskilled, 0:08:38.240 --> 0:08:42.920 like yokels, but at least they Yeah, but they weren't 0:08:42.960 --> 0:08:45.360 prisoners of war and slaves that they wanted to pay 0:08:45.400 --> 0:08:48.679 them a little more, a little money, not much, and 0:08:48.920 --> 0:08:50.959 make a little bit safer. No, And as a result, 0:08:51.040 --> 0:08:57.480 the occupation of mining became more respected and respectable because 0:08:58.000 --> 0:09:02.200 it's a pretty hardcore, a patient, um, and one that 0:09:02.240 --> 0:09:06.560 should be admired and respected, especially if you're talking about 0:09:06.600 --> 0:09:10.040 back in the day when they're using pickaxes and stuff. Yeah, 0:09:10.120 --> 0:09:14.079 your article that you sent was pre six and um. 0:09:14.160 --> 0:09:17.199 For hundreds and hundreds of years, it kind of stayed 0:09:17.240 --> 0:09:19.560 the same, and the Egyptians kind of set the standard 0:09:20.200 --> 0:09:25.040 and everyone followed suit. And you know, they would dig 0:09:25.080 --> 0:09:28.160 down with pickaxes and shovels made of you know, depends 0:09:28.200 --> 0:09:32.000 everything from bone to when they finally got metal from mining, 0:09:32.640 --> 0:09:35.280 they would use metal, right. It kind of was like 0:09:35.320 --> 0:09:38.560 a cycle. They also very cleverly and apparently this is 0:09:38.600 --> 0:09:41.559 a really old technique they would use. Um. I think 0:09:41.600 --> 0:09:45.600 it was called fired quenching. Yeah, that's says fire setting 0:09:45.679 --> 0:09:48.760 or fire quenching. Let's just say they would heat up 0:09:48.840 --> 0:09:52.280 rock with fire and then throw water on it. Yeah, 0:09:52.320 --> 0:09:54.360 and if you've ever done that, you can see your 0:09:54.480 --> 0:09:58.160 rockwell crack pretty quickly because of that change in temperature. 0:09:58.160 --> 0:10:01.600 That really rapid change of temperature. Not safe. No, no, 0:10:01.679 --> 0:10:05.079 it's not, because that rock can go flying, especially in 0:10:05.160 --> 0:10:08.000 fifth century Rome. Yeah, and they were also using it 0:10:08.040 --> 0:10:11.080 not just to like hurry along. It was basically their 0:10:11.120 --> 0:10:13.960 their version of drilling and blasting before there was drills 0:10:14.040 --> 0:10:18.080 or blast equipment. Um. And they would also use it 0:10:18.120 --> 0:10:20.439 not just to to drill or blast or break up 0:10:20.559 --> 0:10:22.560 or they were doing it so they could free their 0:10:22.600 --> 0:10:25.320 acts as or picks that would get stuck in the rock. 0:10:25.840 --> 0:10:27.840 So yeah, that thing could come flying out and hit you. 0:10:28.040 --> 0:10:30.760 But again, you were most likely a prisoner of war, 0:10:30.920 --> 0:10:35.040 a slave, or a convicted criminal who was not only 0:10:35.720 --> 0:10:39.840 using a very cheap pick to break up rock. All day, 0:10:39.960 --> 0:10:42.480 there's a guy behind you lashing you with the whip 0:10:42.760 --> 0:10:46.280 to egg you on and keep you standing upright. Yeah, 0:10:46.320 --> 0:10:48.400 and it is weird. I just thought about the cycle 0:10:48.520 --> 0:10:51.839 like they they kind of I mean, they use the 0:10:51.880 --> 0:10:53.760 metal for other things, but they were kind of mining 0:10:54.320 --> 0:10:57.720 to just improve their own equipment for more mining and 0:10:57.760 --> 0:11:00.840 the discovery more metals. Like initially they wanted to think 0:11:01.280 --> 0:11:06.120 flint for tools and weapons, but they were using bone. 0:11:07.360 --> 0:11:11.160 And then eventually they were like, oh, well we found copper, right, 0:11:11.240 --> 0:11:14.160 so we'll use copper to dig, and like oh well, 0:11:14.240 --> 0:11:19.360 now we found bronze, and like wait, we found some iron. 0:11:19.520 --> 0:11:22.560 R Now let's use iron. Pretty neat, yeah, And each 0:11:22.600 --> 0:11:24.800 time it was like a snake eating its own tail. 0:11:24.880 --> 0:11:27.360 They just go do some more mining with the new stuff. 0:11:27.400 --> 0:11:30.640 That's right. Um. And so yeah, like you said that, 0:11:30.640 --> 0:11:32.920 that was pretty much the early history of mining, and 0:11:32.960 --> 0:11:38.479 it stayed virtually the same until the age of mechanization, 0:11:39.320 --> 0:11:42.840 that well, the industrial age. But even after the industrial agies, 0:11:42.840 --> 0:11:46.240 people were still using like ancient mining techniques T and 0:11:46.320 --> 0:11:51.040 T H. Well it's not that but blasting. And I 0:11:51.040 --> 0:11:54.079 think what they say in this article like five of 0:11:54.120 --> 0:11:59.480 mining today, is this that blast? Yeah technique, it's mostly mechanized, right, Yeah, Well, 0:11:59.559 --> 0:12:01.880 let's you want to take a break. Yeah, man, Okay, 0:12:02.080 --> 0:12:05.080 we'll come back and talk about mechanized mining techniques right 0:12:05.120 --> 0:12:26.240 after this. All right, So, no, two minds are the same. Well, 0:12:26.320 --> 0:12:28.000 that's probably not true. I bet you there's two minds 0:12:28.000 --> 0:12:30.760 that are the same, exactly the same. But there are 0:12:30.800 --> 0:12:34.920 different kinds of minds and um, but most of them 0:12:34.960 --> 0:12:37.840 have a few common characteristics. Uh, you gotta have your 0:12:37.880 --> 0:12:44.200 ventilation shafts. You gotta have your access shafts for the employees, 0:12:44.200 --> 0:12:48.520 you gotta have exit shafts for the or. Um a lot. 0:12:48.559 --> 0:12:51.920 There's a lot of shafts, so many shafts, but so 0:12:51.960 --> 0:12:55.360 many shafts. There's uh, did you say vent shafts to 0:12:55.480 --> 0:12:59.240 bend away the stuff. Yeah, that's number one recovery shafts 0:12:59.280 --> 0:13:04.520 that the or goes up out of. Uh yeah, calm systems, 0:13:05.080 --> 0:13:09.920 break room, we have breakroom, escape rooms, that kind of stuff, 0:13:10.559 --> 0:13:14.559 and the But I think the point of Laton here 0:13:14.640 --> 0:13:18.080 is that the ore deposit itself is going to tell 0:13:18.120 --> 0:13:22.120 you what kind of underground mining technique you want to use, right, Yeah, 0:13:22.200 --> 0:13:25.920 Like the what the ore actually is? What it's shaped like? 0:13:26.960 --> 0:13:29.520 H Is it like a big flat slab? Is it 0:13:29.559 --> 0:13:34.360 a big huge blob? What kind of rock is around it? 0:13:34.480 --> 0:13:40.559 Are you mining petroleum? Jelly? Uh? Well you raised a question, Chuck. 0:13:40.679 --> 0:13:43.040 I could not find this to save my life. So 0:13:43.160 --> 0:13:46.320 there's two types of underground mines, right, there's hard rock 0:13:46.360 --> 0:13:49.120 mines and soft rock mines. Sound their sound Garden and 0:13:49.160 --> 0:13:52.160 Steely Dan. I had dock In and Brett, did you really? 0:13:54.520 --> 0:13:59.839 And oh is doc and metal? Yeah? But see the 0:14:00.160 --> 0:14:04.600 the thing hard rock or metal. That's a fine line something. Yeah, 0:14:04.679 --> 0:14:08.960 But I think bread about sound Garden and bread look 0:14:09.000 --> 0:14:13.520 at us sound Garden working together. Um, So I couldn't 0:14:13.559 --> 0:14:16.400 figure out if that is meant to describe the or 0:14:16.520 --> 0:14:20.360 the type of thing that's being mined or the rocks 0:14:20.400 --> 0:14:23.600 surrounding the ore. I saw both if you know what 0:14:23.680 --> 0:14:29.760 now for the hard or soft? Right? Oh, you see 0:14:29.760 --> 0:14:32.440 what I'm saying? Yeah, I never I think I assumed 0:14:32.480 --> 0:14:36.040 it was the ore, but you may be right. Maybe 0:14:36.040 --> 0:14:40.760 it's so. Layton says, for example, coal coal deposits live 0:14:40.800 --> 0:14:45.360 in relatively soft sedimentary rock, which would make you think 0:14:45.400 --> 0:14:48.560 that she's she's saying that it's the rock that's around 0:14:48.560 --> 0:14:51.560 the ore's soft, yeah, and that that would be a 0:14:51.640 --> 0:14:55.120 soft rock mine that is not dependent on the type 0:14:55.120 --> 0:14:57.720 of ore you're getting out. I saw elsewhere. I saw 0:14:57.760 --> 0:15:00.520 that what she was saying being supported and other places, 0:15:00.520 --> 0:15:02.640 But I also saw no, it has to do with 0:15:02.760 --> 0:15:05.680 it describes the ore that's being removed. So if there's 0:15:05.720 --> 0:15:09.000 any miners out there that can tell us the difference definitively, 0:15:09.480 --> 0:15:11.720 we want to know. Yeah, I'm sure we'll get a 0:15:11.760 --> 0:15:14.640 wonderful follow up emial. But the point is, depending on 0:15:14.680 --> 0:15:17.800 whether you've determined it's a hard rock mine or a 0:15:17.880 --> 0:15:21.560 soft rock mine, UM, that's going to also inform not 0:15:21.640 --> 0:15:24.760 just the the the where the ore is and the 0:15:24.840 --> 0:15:28.080 size of the in shape of the ore deposit, but um, 0:15:28.120 --> 0:15:29.800 whether it's hard rock or soft rock is going to 0:15:29.840 --> 0:15:32.640 determine what type of mining technique you want to use. Yeah, 0:15:32.640 --> 0:15:36.800 it seems like there's more hard rock minds than soft. 0:15:36.840 --> 0:15:41.320 They list gold, diamonds, copper, silver, zinc, and nickel. It's 0:15:41.360 --> 0:15:45.080 hard rock and the only mentioned of soft is coal. Yeah, 0:15:45.120 --> 0:15:46.640 but there's a lot of coal mining going on, so 0:15:46.680 --> 0:15:51.960 maybe you know tons literally tons. Uh, So let's talk 0:15:52.000 --> 0:15:57.440 a little bit about hard rock mining. Um. It really helps. 0:15:57.560 --> 0:16:02.160 I found to look at either cross actions, Like if 0:16:02.200 --> 0:16:05.720 you look up um room and pillar mining, there's always 0:16:05.720 --> 0:16:09.560 a great cross section diagram. The kind of brings it home, 0:16:09.920 --> 0:16:13.000 you know, looking at this stuff. I saw you watching 0:16:13.040 --> 0:16:15.680 a video that I saw too. It like brings out 0:16:16.080 --> 0:16:19.520 the Little Boy who Loved Honker Truck in again, like 0:16:19.800 --> 0:16:22.720 this stuff is really neat. Yeah, you're well, we'll get there. 0:16:22.760 --> 0:16:26.200 The continuous minor, Yeah, that's definitely probably, but also like 0:16:26.240 --> 0:16:32.920 trucks driving underground and like going beep. Yeah, just awesome, 0:16:33.400 --> 0:16:35.840 all right. So room and pillar is um for a 0:16:35.840 --> 0:16:39.280 flat or deposit that doesn't let's say like oh it 0:16:39.360 --> 0:16:41.800 starts at two feet and goes down a thousand more feet. 0:16:42.240 --> 0:16:46.840 It's more horizontal and flat. And this is where basically 0:16:47.040 --> 0:16:50.680 you use this machine called a continuous miner. Uh. And 0:16:50.720 --> 0:16:54.120 they say it drills, but maybe that's the terminology. But 0:16:54.160 --> 0:16:57.000 when I think of drill, I think of um, something 0:16:57.040 --> 0:17:00.560 long drilling a hole into something. This looks like a 0:17:00.640 --> 0:17:06.240 boxy tank with a huge metal dust pan at the 0:17:06.280 --> 0:17:11.200 bottom and a huge rolling pin with teeth on it 0:17:11.320 --> 0:17:14.080 at the top and a big appetite for coal. Yeah. 0:17:14.560 --> 0:17:16.760 And and when I say rolling pin, it's like kind 0:17:16.760 --> 0:17:18.560 of like a bulldozer. You can raise and lower it 0:17:19.160 --> 0:17:24.960 and you just drive that thing through earth. But you 0:17:25.040 --> 0:17:27.639 leave these pillars, so you basically clear out a huge 0:17:27.720 --> 0:17:31.320 room with these big pillars left to keep you from dying. 0:17:31.640 --> 0:17:35.280 I find the terms room and pillar They're kind of 0:17:35.320 --> 0:17:38.200 misleading because it makes you think that the room is 0:17:38.240 --> 0:17:40.640 going to be vast and then there's these little kind 0:17:40.680 --> 0:17:43.199 of supports that are left behind, and that's not the 0:17:43.240 --> 0:17:45.959 case at all. The pillars are huge, They're enormous. They're 0:17:46.000 --> 0:17:48.920 from what I saw, they're frequently bigger than the room itself, 0:17:49.000 --> 0:17:51.840 and they're left behind to keep the rock above from 0:17:51.840 --> 0:17:54.720 crumbling in. Right. Yeah, that's still gotta be scary. So 0:17:54.840 --> 0:17:57.200 oh yeah, I'm sure you know, like this is extremely 0:17:57.320 --> 0:18:01.520 dangerous work. Yeah. So, I mean you're allowing out inside 0:18:01.520 --> 0:18:04.679 the mountain. That's super dangerous. Well, I mean when I 0:18:04.720 --> 0:18:08.840 did my one caving experience a few years ago and 0:18:08.880 --> 0:18:11.280 I was in there was this one I think they 0:18:11.320 --> 0:18:15.520 called it a pancake crawl or something where for twenty 0:18:15.560 --> 0:18:19.840 feet you have to shimmy on your back with with 0:18:20.119 --> 0:18:24.399 the world's largest stone slab five inches above your face. 0:18:25.359 --> 0:18:28.440 And I just kept thinking, like, what if the earth 0:18:28.480 --> 0:18:31.800 moved a little, Yeah, this thing just smashed me flat, 0:18:32.119 --> 0:18:34.200 you'd be a pancake yourself. And that's one of the 0:18:34.280 --> 0:18:38.280 dangers is trimmers and things underground trimmers. Have you been 0:18:38.320 --> 0:18:41.120 to Rock City? Yeah, when I was a kid, so 0:18:41.400 --> 0:18:44.200 a while you know, there's like the enormous rock that's 0:18:44.240 --> 0:18:48.000 being held up very precariously by a small boulder. You're 0:18:48.000 --> 0:18:50.439 walking under that same same thing. I don't need to 0:18:50.440 --> 0:18:54.720 go caving. I can just go to Rock City. Yeah, 0:18:54.760 --> 0:18:56.760 and then you can go to Stuckies and buy a 0:18:56.800 --> 0:19:00.720 pecan log after love those Yes, crazy. No rock City 0:19:00.720 --> 0:19:06.480 as a Tennessee right, yeah, Chattanooga, Tennessee. It's very beautiful area. 0:19:06.600 --> 0:19:09.360 It's it's our version of Carl's Bad Caverns. You've got 0:19:09.480 --> 0:19:13.080 Rock City, well, it's super kitchy. There's like nineteen thirties 0:19:13.119 --> 0:19:17.560 glow in the dark gnomes everywhere. It's really interesting cool um. 0:19:17.600 --> 0:19:20.399 And then you've got Ruby Falls. You walk underground and 0:19:20.600 --> 0:19:24.080 come into a cavern and there's the water coming down. Uh. 0:19:24.119 --> 0:19:27.359 And then there's also like Lookout Mountain. It's beautiful. Yeah, 0:19:27.840 --> 0:19:31.200 definitely worth going to. Not too far from your beloved Dollywood, Yeah, 0:19:31.240 --> 0:19:35.280 it's not far. So. The point is with the room 0:19:35.280 --> 0:19:38.920 and pillar, right, you're basically your pac Man or your 0:19:38.960 --> 0:19:43.480 dig Doug going through a coal scene and then that 0:19:43.680 --> 0:19:46.320 space you just carved out is called the room. When 0:19:46.359 --> 0:19:49.359 you come back through, you leave a big space in 0:19:49.400 --> 0:19:53.720 between of coal and then come back through again and 0:19:53.800 --> 0:19:56.240 that's another room. So what's in between those two rooms 0:19:56.240 --> 0:19:58.920 now is the pillar. It's just the strip of coal 0:19:59.000 --> 0:20:02.240 that you left intac Yeah, and um that that they 0:20:02.240 --> 0:20:03.960 will come in at the very end and even take 0:20:04.000 --> 0:20:07.879 care of those pillars one by one, allowing everything to 0:20:07.960 --> 0:20:11.040 collapse as it leaves, which sounds probably like the most 0:20:11.119 --> 0:20:16.200 dangerous phase's knocking the pillars down there, like make Todd 0:20:16.240 --> 0:20:20.400 do it. Uh, he's in the break room having a nap. 0:20:21.400 --> 0:20:23.760 Wake him up. That's why they he always sleeps on 0:20:23.760 --> 0:20:25.840 the job. Did you see that picture of Richard Branson 0:20:26.359 --> 0:20:30.520 like squatting next to one of like a Virgin Airlines employee, 0:20:30.520 --> 0:20:32.760 like sleeping on a couch in the break room. He's 0:20:32.800 --> 0:20:35.240 like squatting next to him giving the thumbs up. What 0:20:35.480 --> 0:20:37.600 was this whole thing? Because he's like the boss of 0:20:37.600 --> 0:20:41.639 all bosses of this guy. No, he's saying like, I 0:20:41.760 --> 0:20:45.960 busted you sleeping on got you? It sounded staged. It 0:20:46.000 --> 0:20:49.280 was a real thing, supposedly. Yeah. Did he stick his 0:20:49.359 --> 0:20:54.199 hands in hot water, him and himself in Italia on 0:20:54.240 --> 0:20:56.960 the guy's face was sharp. He put toothpaste on his 0:20:57.000 --> 0:20:59.520 hand and tickled his nose. He's a fun loving boss. 0:21:00.040 --> 0:21:01.879 All right, So that's room and pillar. There's also the 0:21:01.920 --> 0:21:06.240 cut and film method, which I don't fully understand. It 0:21:06.359 --> 0:21:10.520 is for narrow deposits, and you basically drill a ramp 0:21:10.920 --> 0:21:14.080 adjacent to the deposit from the surface of the earth 0:21:14.160 --> 0:21:16.600 down to the bottom of it, and then you start 0:21:17.240 --> 0:21:21.119 at the bottom at the bottom and just start drilling sideways. Yeah. 0:21:21.240 --> 0:21:24.919 So so imagine like the ore deposit is just like 0:21:24.960 --> 0:21:30.920 a big tall um like rectangle okay in the earth 0:21:31.000 --> 0:21:35.159 going upwards. It's a vertical or deposit. You just go 0:21:35.280 --> 0:21:38.040 down the bottom, you make a cut across where you're 0:21:38.040 --> 0:21:40.359 digging out the coal from one side all the way 0:21:40.400 --> 0:21:41.840 to the other, all the way to the other right, 0:21:41.880 --> 0:21:46.359 and then you backfill that with um rock rubble that 0:21:46.520 --> 0:21:49.320 say you you gathered when you made the initial shaft 0:21:49.359 --> 0:21:52.680 down to the bottom, and then you drive on that 0:21:52.720 --> 0:21:55.600 backfill to do the next thing. So you fill the 0:21:55.760 --> 0:21:58.400 entire room you just did with rubble, and then when 0:21:58.440 --> 0:22:01.480 you cut above that, you're using that rubble to drive 0:22:01.560 --> 0:22:06.280 on and then yep, just up. Well that makes sense. Yeah, 0:22:06.600 --> 0:22:09.000 that's pretty pretty good one. And if you imagine a 0:22:09.040 --> 0:22:11.520 big yellow truck doing it, it can just send you 0:22:11.680 --> 0:22:15.840 barreling right back to age four or five. I didn't 0:22:15.880 --> 0:22:20.919 play a ton with Tonka trucks a little bit. There 0:22:21.000 --> 0:22:23.760 was a lot of model cars. Richard Scary was really 0:22:23.760 --> 0:22:28.840 good at drawing stuff like that. Those books were great, 0:22:29.160 --> 0:22:31.520 but I was big on I had the Evil Knevil 0:22:32.200 --> 0:22:36.439 stunt cycle. Oh yeah, that was just amazing. Yeah, like 0:22:36.880 --> 0:22:39.159 that was my toy of choice for like probably three 0:22:39.240 --> 0:22:41.600 or four years. I can imagine. Yeah, I used to 0:22:42.560 --> 0:22:45.280 we my brother and I made don't try this at home, kids. 0:22:45.600 --> 0:22:48.080 This is the seventies. We were much more dangerous. We 0:22:48.119 --> 0:22:50.520 would make hoops out of coat hangers and dip them 0:22:50.520 --> 0:22:53.840 in gasoline. I was really really hoping that you were 0:22:53.840 --> 0:22:55.560 going to say a ring of fire. Yeah, when you 0:22:55.600 --> 0:22:59.680 could jump the evil can evil through it, it's really awesome. Yeah. Man, 0:22:59.760 --> 0:23:03.119 I really missed out on having a Scout on my own. Yeah, 0:23:03.160 --> 0:23:06.320 it's good to have a scott arown. Yeah. Uh. He's 0:23:06.359 --> 0:23:07.920 gonna be at our New York shows by the way, 0:23:08.040 --> 0:23:10.320 Oh great, just randomly going to be in New York, 0:23:10.440 --> 0:23:13.639 same exact them. Actually, I don't know if he's going 0:23:13.680 --> 0:23:16.080 to come to the show. He was going to, but 0:23:16.119 --> 0:23:17.960 then I said, it's the same topic you've already seen, 0:23:18.680 --> 0:23:23.000 so he said, Yeah. Anyway back to um cut and fill. Uh, 0:23:23.080 --> 0:23:25.520 you can use it for wider deposits as well. You 0:23:25.600 --> 0:23:29.000 just have to have two adjacent rams. I guess you 0:23:29.119 --> 0:23:32.040 have one on each side. Yeah. I didn't really get that, 0:23:32.080 --> 0:23:36.440 aside from maybe it's it's a they're just criss crossing it. 0:23:36.520 --> 0:23:40.280 Think they're doing one above the other. That seems really dangerous. Yeah, 0:23:40.320 --> 0:23:43.520 well it's all dangerous. All right. Let's talk more about Scott. 0:23:45.960 --> 0:23:49.320 Uh what about block caving? This one is um you 0:23:49.359 --> 0:23:52.200 don't see it a lot now. It's for hard rock 0:23:52.760 --> 0:23:58.320 excavations and basically it's not for like precious metal or anything. 0:23:58.600 --> 0:24:02.400