Uranium-Mining Practices and Costs at Ten Salt Wash Lease Operations of Union Carbide Nuclear Co. Page: 41
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41
Ray sank the Guadalcanal shaft 302 feet and cut its single level at 267
feet. The two compartments are 4 by 4 feet in the clear and are open-cribbed
with 3- by 8-inch timber set on 8- by 8-inch bearers installed approximately
over 20 feet. The positions of the station and headframe relative to the shaft
are the same as at the Virgin shaft. The station is simply an 8- by 7-foot
haulage drift driven from the end-plate side of the hoisting compartment. The
skip faces the station, and 4- by 6-inch guides are fastened to the wall
plates. An A-type headframe was erected over the collar, with the bent of the
front posts at a right angle to the long axis of the shaft compartments.
The general strike of the beds in the Guadalcanal mine is about N. 40 W.
and their dip about 60 NE. The shaft ,was sunk centrally between two mineral-
ized areas that are about 500 feet apart in a northwest-southeast direction and
are 190 to 310 feet below the-surface. (See fig. 20.) The northwest ore bodies
are updip and about 20 feet higher than those to the southeast. The main level
cuts the major ore bodies at or above track level, and the stopes are benched
from 3 to 7 feet above the track in the 6- by 7-foot haulage drifts. Ray
keeps as much of his development work within the ore zones as possible. Where
the ore bodies are about 15 feet above track level, they are opened through
short raw raises; where the ore is 20 feet or more above track level, inclines
are driven to the ore zone. The ore mined through 1957 averaged about 4 feet
in thickness and had a maximum thickness of approximately 7 feet.
The rock overlying much of the ore is weaker than that overlying most Salt
Wash ore deposits. The mudstone overlying the southeast ore bodies sloughs
easily, and stulls are necessary to keep some workings safe. Drift sets are
needed in headings driven beneath the ore zone in sugary, poorly consolidated
sandstone.
The rock is drilled with leg-mounted drills, 7/8-inch hexagonal steel, and
1-5/8-inch one-use socket bits. The usual drift round consists of 17 holes,
including a five-hole burn cut, the center" hole of which is not loaded. As few
as 12 holes, which can be drilled in about 1 hour, will break the poorly con-
solidated sandstone. The ground is broken with 1- by 8-inch cartridges of 30-
percent semigelatin dynamite. Rock broken in drift headings is loaded with
Eimco 12B RockerShovels.. Five-horsepower, air-driven, double-drum slusher
hoists with 24-inch scrapers are used to load ore from stopes at or below track
level into mine cars placed under timber ramps. The hoists also pull the ore
from stopes benched above track level directly into the haulage drifts. A 10-
horsepower, double-drum, electric-driven hoist with a 36-inch scraper is used
when driving inclines and in stopes where the haul exceeds 100 feet.
The ore is hand-trammed to the shaft station in 18.5-cubic-foot-capacity
eid-dump mine cars that run on 12-pound rails laid to 18-inch gage. The sin-
gle, 30-cubic-foot, Kimberly-type skip (fig. 18) is hoisted about 350 f.p.m.
by a Vulcan Denver 22R mine hoist, like the hoist used at the Virgin shaft.
The headframe and dumping device are also similar to those used at the Virgin.
(See figs. 19 and 21.)
Compressed air is furnished by a vertical, two-stage, air-cooled, 465-
c.f.m., Chicago Pneumatic PB-8, stationary compressor, driven by a 100-horse-
power induction motor, and a vertical, two-stage, 230-c.f.m., water-cooled,
Gardner-Denver WBQ compressor, driven by a 50-horsepower induction motor.
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Dare, W. L. Uranium-Mining Practices and Costs at Ten Salt Wash Lease Operations of Union Carbide Nuclear Co., report, 1959; Washington D.C.. (https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc170712/m1/47/?rotate=270: accessed April 23, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, UNT Digital Library, https://digital.library.unt.edu; crediting UNT Libraries Government Documents Department.