I just got to see a "room & pillar" mine while in Missouri, but this film is like L&P for giants!! Such empressive machinery. Thanks for sharing this with me.
Awesome stuff. If you want to see really huge open stopes, meaning like 1800' h x 1500' w x 3000' l, go to the Pine Creek Union Carbide mine near Bishop, Ca. Watch this video and notice the mine plot at 4:40 - 5:00 and all those black areas are giant open stopes compare the sizes to the tunnel lengths they state and the height of the elevator shafts. They started at the bottom of the ore bodies and mined upwards. They would drive a grid of adits off of the top of the shafts 40 or so feet above the roof of the stopes, drill thousands of blasting holes downwards in the floors of the adits, fill them with explosives, retreat to a safe assembly area, and when the blasted they would drop a roof section of the ore body that would be equal to a couple-three-four football fields by 40 feet high from the top of the stope 1500-1800 feet down onto the floor of the stope all at once. Sadly they don't show this or the stopes in the video but I had friends that worked there that said when they were excavation this ore of the floor of the stopes the whole stope would be lit up by dozens of carbon giant arc lamps and it was simply awe inspiring to see these immensely vast open areas inside the mountain. I remember one guy saying athat you could easily fly around in a Piper Cub or Cessna inside the mountain, they were that massive.
+Karen Audrey Todd Check out this video about Pine Creek... th-cam.com/video/XLm1SmF0IHU/w-d-xo.html Sadly, much of the mine is flooded right now and they also mined the ramps which were in high grade when they were closing so access is severely compromised.
The final credit is to the St. Joseph Lead Mine for their cooperation. The St. Joe Lead Mine Museum is located in Bonne Terre, St. Francois County, MO.
Do you know which mine this was filmed in? The St Joe shovel places it no earlier than 1922 for certain, but most of the later mines in the old Lead Belt were trackless.
Absolutely amazing! I'm used to Western mines, where even the most stable rock has an occasional crack running through it that must be timbered. These stopes are incredible! Do you know what sort of rock they are working in?
“Gly”: I believe this is the Fletcher Mine Chris. 37.4671209, -91.112194 The Fletcher Mine is the largest lead mine in the country but I’m certain there are others in the area with equally large stopes.
@@AbandonedandForgottenPlaces Fletcher is currently active and was developed in the 60s or 70s with rubber-tire equipment. It's located in the Viburnum Trend, aka the New Lead Belt. This video was shot in the Old Lead Belt, centered around Leadwood, Bonne Terre, and Flat River.
I just got to see a "room & pillar" mine while in Missouri, but this film is like L&P for giants!! Such empressive machinery. Thanks for sharing this with me.
"Room and Pillar" mining leaves behind about 40% of the ore in the pillars.
Awesome stuff. If you want to see really huge open stopes, meaning like 1800' h x 1500' w x 3000' l, go to the Pine Creek Union Carbide mine near Bishop, Ca.
Watch this video and notice the mine plot at 4:40 - 5:00 and all those black areas are giant open stopes compare the sizes to the tunnel lengths they state and the height of the elevator shafts.
They started at the bottom of the ore bodies and mined upwards. They would drive a grid of adits off of the top of the shafts 40 or so feet above the roof of the stopes, drill thousands of blasting holes downwards in the floors of the adits, fill them with explosives, retreat to a safe assembly area, and when the blasted they would drop a roof section of the ore body that would be equal to a couple-three-four football fields by 40 feet high from the top of the stope 1500-1800 feet down onto the floor of the stope all at once.
Sadly they don't show this or the stopes in the video but I had friends that worked there that said when they were excavation this ore of the floor of the stopes the whole stope would be lit up by dozens of carbon giant arc lamps and it was simply awe inspiring to see these immensely vast open areas inside the mountain. I remember one guy saying athat you could easily fly around in a Piper Cub or Cessna inside the mountain, they were that massive.
+Karen Audrey Todd Check out this video about Pine Creek...
th-cam.com/video/XLm1SmF0IHU/w-d-xo.html
Sadly, much of the mine is flooded right now and they also mined the ramps which were in high grade when they were closing so access is severely compromised.
I think they mined like this at the ore mines in Mineville New York. Back when the mines were still in operation.
My forebearers came from these humble origins.... I have so many questions.
The final credit is to the St. Joseph Lead Mine for their cooperation. The St. Joe Lead Mine Museum is located in Bonne Terre, St. Francois County, MO.
Do you know which mine this was filmed in? The St Joe shovel places it no earlier than 1922 for certain, but most of the later mines in the old Lead Belt were trackless.
Sorry for the very late reply! We don't unfortunately.
Absolutely amazing! I'm used to Western mines, where even the most stable rock has an occasional crack running through it that must be timbered. These stopes are incredible! Do you know what sort of rock they are working in?
We don't unfortunately.
“Gly”: I believe this is the Fletcher Mine Chris. 37.4671209, -91.112194
The Fletcher Mine is the largest lead mine in the country but I’m certain there are others in the area with equally large stopes.
@@AbandonedandForgottenPlaces Gly you and Mr M need to do this mine
Limestone host rock. MVT formation.
@@AbandonedandForgottenPlaces Fletcher is currently active and was developed in the 60s or 70s with rubber-tire equipment. It's located in the Viburnum Trend, aka the New Lead Belt. This video was shot in the Old Lead Belt, centered around Leadwood, Bonne Terre, and Flat River.
incredible
What if the platform fell? Lol