Introduction:
Coal Mining 150 Years Ago

A Day in the Life of a Miner

• Morning
• Arrival
• Descent
• Bottom

As Fireboss

Jobs

Underground Stables

Introduction:
Open-Pit Mining Today

Mining

• Drilling and Blasting
• Removing the Waste Rock
• Loading Coal
• Processing Coal
  • Breaker
  • Coal-fired Dryer

Transporting Coal to the Market

Descent
I hope you don’t have any matches in your pockets! The mines are full of very dangerous and explosive gases so there's no smoking or open-flame lamps allowed underground. A man will come and search each of us to make sure that no one has cigarettes or matches in his pockets before going down.⁷  

To get below, we are going to be lowered down a 700 meter mineshaft in metal cages. These cages are made to carry 22 men. You'd better hold on tight because as soon as we step on the cage a signal will be given to the operator and the cage will start to drop down. You'll be able to see that there are two cages in the shaft. One of them is used to carry miners and the other is for water and air pipes and electrical cables. The water, air and electricity is needed to keep the mine safe for everyone to work in.⁸

Now that we've started moving downwards, it’s getting very dark very quickly. It only takes us one minute to make the 700 foot drop underground. You won’t see bright sunlight again for another 8 hrs. Are you having trouble seeing? It will probably be hard for your eyes to adjust to the darkness at first due to the fact that even the best lamps can't compare to the natural sunlight. Just imagine if the lamps weren’t on, we’d be working in complete darkness!⁹

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