Hoisting mineral and men in the same shaft

[Wheldale]

In South Africa, many gold mines had 2 skips and two cages in a shaft. Men would be wound in the shaft the same time as the ore was being wound in the shaft. Would this set up be allowed in the UK??

[John]

May 24, 2013 13:28:28 GMT -5 Wheldale said:

In South Africa, many gold mines had 2 skips and two cages in a shaft. Men would be wound in the shaft the same time as the ore was being wound in the shaft. Would this set up be allowed in the UK??

Absolutely forbidden, although I have ridden in the manriding deck of a skip loaded with 20 tonnes of ore......Totally illegal though....

[mineruk]

At Kimblesworth we used to have ponies go in the cage with the men this was everyday as the stables were on pit top woo betide if you got on the same deck because some of them used to kick.

[John]

Our's only came out for the two week shutdown and spent two glorious weeks romping around some green fields on the other side of the Trent.
They rode in and out one at a time blindfolded and securely tied up to prevent them kicking the cage "doors" out.
There were only about five or six of them towards closure in 1968.

If gate road rope haulages were advanced regularly, we could have retired the lot in the early 60's.
All main road haulage was done by endless rope haulages.

[emasim]

2 skips and 2 cages in the same shaft, with man winding and rock hoisting going on simultaneously is allowed in Zambia, except in situations where rock spillages are likely to occur from the skips into the man winding compartments. In such situations, only ore hoisting or man winding are done at a time...

I suppose the same would carry for the UK since they designed our mines and we use the same guide to mining regulations.

[John]

Feb 21, 2020 12:37:17 GMT -5 emasim said:

2 skips and 2 cages in the same shaft, with man winding and rock hoisting going on simultaneously is allowed in Zambia, except in situations where rock spillages are likely to occur from the skips into the man winding compartments. In such situations, only ore hoisting or man winding are done at a time...

I suppose the same would carry for the UK since they designed our mines and we use the same guide to mining regulations.

If I recall rightly, the M&Q Act prohibited minerals to be wound in the same shaft or materials when manriding was being carried out. I know for certain you were not allowed to ride with minerals, ie on a manriding deck of a minerals skip that is loaded or the other skip is loaded. Although I did it many times as the ore handling electrician at one mine. If it had been widely known, I'd have been in the Managers office getting the "riot act" read to me..