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The Gold Mine
A fitting last adventure on this visit to SA for sure! Michael, Seuns neighbour in Klerksdorp asked me on a previous visit if I would like to go down a Gold mine? why not "Jungle George" as I have been named can not turn down an adventure!! (with the exception of jumping out of planes or that ridiculous bungy jumping!) So it was set for last Saturday, the only condition being that I reported to Michaels house at 5.30 am with a crate of beer! And so i did, the sun rose at 5.45 as we drove towards "shaft 2" at Orkney and what a beautiful sunrise! We drove through the security gates and Michael asked them to sign me in as a visitor. Michael is the head of security at the moment and has spent many years working on the mines. After changing into my welly boots, overalls, gloves and helmet complete with proper miners light we walked off towards the huge tower that stands above the main shaft. The huge wheels roared behind us as it hauled the steel cages thousands of feet up the shaft at high speed. We walked down a level and myself and about twenty miners climbed aboard the dark steel cage. Not exactly like a lift at a shopping mall thats for sure!! And then down, fast 7000 feet in the dark metal cage at 16 metres a second that is capable of easily carrying 55 men. It was very hard to judge the speed in the dark with just our miner's helmets to see but the scraping sound as it brushed against the sides and my ears popping told me that we were descending fast! We dropped some of the men at the bottom so they could continue their journey down another shaft that took them even deeper! We went up to level 53. From here my guided tour was to begin. The first thing you notice as you wobble out of the lift is the heat, it was 28 degrees but so so hot and the sweat didn't stop pouring out of me for the next hour and a half! We worked our way down a maze of tunnels, some not high enough to stand upright in and down extremely steep ladders on our way to "level 53-42c panel 6a" Here we clambered to the face where the men were working that day. They pack the explosives into holes that they drill with hand held drills much like the "jack hammers" we use on our roads in the UK. and then blast a lump of rock away in search of a strip of gold. It then gets dragged by scrapers 1 ton at a time and tipped down a shaft the onto a loco, up to the surface for refining. In each 1 ton scraper load they drag from the face they get approx 12grammes of gold and in a year they pull up 2.4 tonnes from "shaft 2" The lead minor who was also sweating lots turned to me and said "are you not scared?" I replied "sure its healthy to be scared, no?" but to be honest I was not that scared, although it would have been easy to be! And you could get panicky and claustrophobic but I have learnt in Africa that controling emotions like fear is a big part of survival and nessesery if you want to have fun and see things! After climbing back over to the main shaft i saw how fast these cages traveled. They flew past us on their way up and down and I feel my ride to the surface would have been less nerve racking if i hadnt seen the cages flying past!! and the way the cage bobbed up and down as it arrived at our level. It was a nice feeling to get back to the surface for sure, and that nice feeling you get when you have just survived something crazy hit me and the sun never felt so good! After a tour around the winch house watching the huge wheels hoisting the cages up and down controlled by a man in a cabin with crane like controls we went back to the mess hall. And there we polished off a few of the beers, yep at 8.30 after a trip like that and only 3 hours sleep my head went a little light ;-) So that I think was my last adventure in SA this time around, and I take my hat off to the miners and staff working at the mines every day , not for me thanks (and its not suprising you drink beer at 8.00am!!) Thanks guys for the tour.
Photo to follow
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