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in southern Arizona. I am a third generation miner. My father worked for Magma Copper
Company located in Superior for thirty years. My grandfather worked for the same mine for
forty-two years. My uncle, who is an Inuit Indian, and my wife’s favorite person in the family,
was the chief mining engineer for Magma for many years.
With this much mining history I decided to become a mining engineer also. I started my
mining engineering education in 1978 at the University of Arizona, which is located in
Tucson, Arizona. I worked at the mine during the summers to raise money for college as an
underground supply trammer. This was hard heavy work in a tough hot working
environment but as a young kid I was taught that the conditions were normal. Anyway it was
good money and I was on an adventure.
The second summer I decided to take a year off of school to work in the mine for a year and
a half so I could work my way through Magma’s underground miner training program and
become a full time contract miner. I figured if I was going to become a mining engineer, that
I had better learn how to be a miner first. After the year and a half was over I was ready to
return to school to continue my mining education. The extended mining I did for that time
gave me a special appreciation for what men like my father had to day in and day in order
make a living to provide for their families.
During the year and a half of mining I was trained on and became experienced with mining
explosives, timber and rock bolt ground support, track maintenance and installation, jack
drills, jumbos, and compressed air rubber tired ore transportation vehicles called Cavos. I
also made many mining friends that to this day I still only remember by their nick names,
such as, Rhinestone, Chicken-Lips, Heck, Tiny (which he wasn’t), and Drugstore to name a
few.
I returned to school but would take more time off to work intermittently for the next few
years. I finally graduated with my mining engineering degree in the summer of 1985. I then
took employment as a miner at Magma’s San Manuel underground block cave mine. The
mining industry was just pulling out of a long recession and the only job San Manuel had
open as a miner. Luckily I had previous training from Magma’s Superior operation.
I started work in the new panel 18 (I think this is the correct number) experimental LHD
block. Prior to this experiment all ore was moved from the undercut raises to the haulage
raises by men required to do extensive manual labor. The LHD system was tried to see if
efficiencies could be increased. Panel 3, which was actually two panels, was the next
experimental LHD area to be tried. Unfortunately, after several years of hard work by many
individuals at San Manuel the LHD system was retired. The rock mechanics of the ore
simply could not sustain the large opening required for the low profile front-end loaders in
use.
After serving as a miner for nine months I transferred to the underground surveying
department and worked as an underground surveyor. Next I served as a front line draw
level foreman for a year. This was followed by a stint as the assistant production engineer
and the as the assistant ventilation engineer. I eventually became the department of the
ventilation department during the development of the Lower Kalamazoo ore body.
The mine developed two new mining levels in the Kalamazoo ore body starting in
1993/1994. During this time my team of several engineers and hourly miners interfaced
with other mine personnel, departments, contractors, consultants, and state mine and
federal mine inspectors (MSHA) in order to maintain the older production part of the mine
as well as supply the needed guidance and support to the new mining project.
Many new cutting edge ventilation systems were designed and implemented, from two new
three stage cooling spray chambers, stacking of two seven foot 200 horsepower fans in
series, installation of two new 1750 rpm 700 horsepower main fans, installation of a new
bank of $450,00 high pressure heat exchangers, two 1000 ton chillers, two sets of flat plate
heat exchangers, and the installation of a plenum and radiator combination capable of
supplying 200 tons of cooling to 25,000 cfm and dropping 100 degree F air to 72 degrees.
This was initially used with four sixty horsepower fans set in series set near the shaft area.
You can read the about the initial design specifications and proposals by clicking on the
3530 Vent button above.
I eventually became the project manager for a proposed drilling program. I started work on
organizing the project, creating a budget, and a project schedule. Unfortunately, due to
falling copper prices the project had to be scraped. I temporarily severed in the
development training department after which I returned underground to serve as a draw and
haulage production foreman until the mine shut down.
You click on the licks above to see copies of some of my mining work and other interesting
(at least to me) paraphernalia of mine.