Slot stopes are a gift from historical miners that can help you unravel the structural controls of an ore system even when all of the veins have been mined away.
"Most of the timbers have rotted away". I remember reading a 1920s report on how terrifying a mine was when the timbers were going in. 90 years and several earthquakes later when they had rotted away, other geos seemed happy to wander around in there hitting things with geopicks.
Considering the subtropical environment here. It's remarkable any timber is left. Some of them still have wedges in place. Those miners knew how to select good wood and set it well!
Spent years mining slot stopes, nickel komatiite in Kambalda. Mainly pentlandite and some millerite. You know it's narrow when the stope is your elbow wide plus a fist. Great days.
Ive never crawled down shafts like these either however there are a bunch of curious, not so risk averse young blokes these days who woulda got down to the bottom of that stope and uploaded a video about it by the time you finished your lesson of the day here. Maybe they're a resource we can use, but no, there will be cheap boston dynamics mine dog we can send in soon ha ha
Good lesson! I saw my first slot stope back in the late 70’s in the ghost town of Skidoo, Death Valley California. This was on a camping trip before I decided to major in geology. This slot stope was about 3 feet in width and seemed bottomless as our flashlights quickly were lost in the blackness and the rocks we tossed in seemed to never hit bottom. I was astonished that someone could excavate something like this. Helped generate my curiosity in geology and mining…what did those old timers see that had them doing this dangerous kind of mining?
I do metal detecting for gold so have really enjoyed knowledge gained through your videos (thank you). A side question: Has your snake chaps ever prevented a snake hit/bite? It is so hot here I go out in shorts in the summer and fall without them but we only have rattlesnakes here in N. Ca USA. Lived with them all my life and using common sense never had a problem.
They have never been tested against fangs, but Spinnefex grass spines are a daily hazard so they are a necessity. Common sense works best for the snakes.
Pardon my ignorance, since I am unaware of Australia's geology and dont have much experience identifying unique minerals in the field. For that magnetic mineral, what lead you towards pyrrhotite rather than something like magnetite? Is it the fact that it's surrounded by sulfides, so looking for a magnetic sulfide is a good assumption? Or is it that you've just seen minerals like that enough times and are familiar?
Pyrrhotite is a sulphide so it has a metalic lustre (usually with a bronze or pinkish colour). Magnetite is an oxide and it ranges from black to slate grey with a bright, but not metallic lustre. Pyrrhotite is the only sulphide that is strongly magnetic.
