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Post by John on Apr 16, 2012 8:48:44 GMT -5
Here's another page from that issue of the Boulby Crystal. Note the electrical differences between the two forklifts, the U/G one has FLP lights and generator, flame traps on the engine and scrubber tanks on the exhaust. The bottom forklift is in N02 pit bottom, we had one large cage and a small cage in that shaft. the large cage was to handle the large containers of supplies.
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Post by John on Apr 18, 2012 17:51:57 GMT -5
I located Peter Luke on Friends Reunited site, left him a message, so hopefully he will find his way here after he's checked his messages.
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Post by John on Apr 19, 2012 10:53:26 GMT -5
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Post by boro123 on Apr 21, 2012 19:12:04 GMT -5
The mine has progressed from the old henley forklifts to new french and more recently German versions such as the Kramar 4507/2506's. This has helped in the development of movement in materials from surface to undergound. Not only has the material handling machines been upgraded but also other aspects such as personell carriers and general transportation requirements are now in the 21'st century.
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Post by John on Apr 21, 2012 22:08:54 GMT -5
I'm not sure, but I think when I left in 79 there was one manriding vehicle for the south side, other than that, we just weren't far enough in to warrant transport.
I used to like rail transport, problem is, it requires so much maintenance. In the last two coal mines I worked at, they used heavy diesel locos for materials, electric locos for local material handling, electric locos hauling manriding cars, plus diesel and battery personnel carriers that carried 14 men including the driver, they could also carry two stretcher cases too.
The longwall at Angus place had an emergency rail mounted personnel car as it was considered the most dangerous workings, was handy for me if the belts developed trouble, I'd hop in it and travel outbye to get the belts running again....
Wongawill had two types of personnel carriers, both rail mounted, battery and diesel.
Marblaegis gypsum Mine in Notts was all rubber tyred vehicles, Landrovers and a diesel hydraulic manrider when I worked there before I ended up at Boulby. I was authorized to drive both carrying men or materials as was most of the elec and fitting staffs.
I was on nights and the mine foreman asked me if I'd drive him outside and get some powder. We loaded up with about 500lbs of Trininite explosives at the powder mag, and he said drive up to the det mag, there we loaded a load of dets in several leather det bags.
On the way back down, I happened to say to the foreman, "isn't it dangerous and illegal to carry dets and powder on the same vehicle"
" Sure it is, he said, but who's going to know if anything happens" I laughed it off.
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Post by John on May 1, 2012 13:35:03 GMT -5
Can anyone let me know what the rate of advance is on the big Joy CM's at Boulby??
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Post by John on May 26, 2013 7:03:57 GMT -5
The mine has progressed from the old henley forklifts to new french and more recently German versions such as the Kramar 4507/2506's. This has helped in the development of movement in materials from surface to undergound. Not only has the material handling machines been upgraded but also other aspects such as personell carriers and general transportation requirements are now in the 21'st century. Any chance of getting photos of the new headgear being constructed for No1 shaft and installation of same during the shutdown in summer? ?
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Post by garryo on May 27, 2013 14:49:16 GMT -5
John
Have got some excellent shots of the new headgear ready to replace the rock shaft headgear taken about three weeks ago on a beautiful (for UK) spring day. Shots taken from Boulby bank. Is there an easy way of posting apart from usiong third party such as photo bucket?. As I said I in some recent posts, visited Boulby when I was in the UK last year and hope to visit again this year.
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Post by John on May 27, 2013 14:55:48 GMT -5
John Have got some excellent shots of the new headgear ready to replace the rock shaft headgear taken about three weeks ago on a beautiful (for UK) spring day. Shots taken from Boulby bank. Is there an easy way of posting apart from usiong third party such as photo bucket?. As I said I in some recent posts, visited Boulby when I was in the UK last year and hope to visit again this year. Sent you a pm Garry.
Also, after this month, everyone will be able to post photos and files direct from their own computer...
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Post by tygwyn on Jul 22, 2013 19:08:21 GMT -5
Was it ICI that opened Boulby,until sale to the Israeli company, Or was another owner between?
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Post by John on Jul 23, 2013 6:12:17 GMT -5
Was it ICI that opened Boulby,until sale to the Israeli company, Or was another owner between? ICI owned 51% and a subsidiary of De Beers owned the other 49%, I believe ICI sold their holdings to their partner, then the whole lot was sold off to an Israeli company years back. It's not just the visual impact the surface buildings will have, they will be looking at subsidence data from Boulby, whose mining planning permits are also under renewal..
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Post by tygwyn on Jul 23, 2013 7:27:20 GMT -5
Has there been any subsidence from Boulby?
At 5,000 plus feet,i`d have though any subsidence would be negligible on the surface,
Maybe that`s why we have so many valley`s in South Wales,lol.
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Post by John on Jul 23, 2013 8:05:32 GMT -5
Has there been any subsidence from Boulby? At 5,000 plus feet,i`d have though any subsidence would be negligible on the surface, Maybe that`s why we have so many valley`s in South Wales,lol. There's always subsidence on the surface where mining takes place, most of the mining that took place on the 70's was to the east and south...Around that area there aren't too many towns or cities. The only work I recall heading west, under the National Park, was a road being driven called "The West Links" in salt, it was supposed to head out for about a mile then turn to the left, south, to form a new ventilation road and main conveyor road for the south districts. History of that area is water broke through and flooded the south side in the early 80's..
According to CPL there has been subsidence on the surface, you can't take 14-15 feet of mineral out without it happening eventually..
From what I see from information, most of the workings have been under the North Sea for the past years in an extension of the old East District I worked in. When that district finished around 1978'ish, it was well over a Km from the shafts, that would put it out to under the sea. The south side workings would have been around 2Km from the shaft when I left in 79.
I think in one white paper CPL has on line, that convergence is around 10mm a day in roads in potash.
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Post by John on Jan 24, 2014 10:30:36 GMT -5
Just a few facts from the early years. U/G was fed with two 6.6Kv shaft feeders, I don't recall now whether it was done as a ring main feeder, but doubt it, I think at the main U/G subs the mid breaker was always left open, leaving two load balanced circuits. All GEB's at that time were Wallacetown, AKA Wecols, A67's for face duties and pumps etc, at 1.1Kv, with Wecol air circuit breakers for the Joy cutters. Lighting transformers were all Wecol's. Main U/G mobile sub stations were Brush FLP transformers with SF6 6.6Kv breakers mounted on them, all U/G HV switchborads were Brush SF6 free standing circuit breakers. Conveyors were Huwood TB120's, with two 1.1Kv motors controlled by a master and slave GEB's comprising of a Wecol A69 and a Wecol A67. Manless conveyors were monitored and controlled by Huwood Mk1A units. No1 conveyor in No1 pit bottom was a Huwood with a scoop coupling, loadin into two 20 tonne skip pockets, during mineral winding, one was loaded to 20 tonnes, chute changed over and started loading to 15 tonnes, if the other pocket hadn't discharged into a skip, then the scoop would open on the conveyor drive. No1 belt was fed by a 200 tonne in seam surge bin, which in turn was fed by No2 conveyor from one of the two main 1000 tonne in seam ore bins.
Faces were undercut with Joy cutters, drilled with single boom Secoma drill rigs, then fired with explosives, mucked out using Eimco diesel LHD's onto a Stamler feeder breaker, (ratio feeder) at the boot end of the conveyor belt. Headings mucked out were bolted by a single boom Secoma roof bolting machine.
First Heliminers operated at 3.3Kv and fed from a Belmos KFG HV GEB, shuttle cars were Joy SC10's with all UK electrics on them, Belmos switchgear and UK electric motors and cabling, assembled at a plant in Scotland. Shuttle cars were powered from B&F GEB's at 550 volts, again transformers were Brush FLP transformers, in the shuttlecars case 6.6Kv/550 volts. ALL electrical equipment used sensitive Earth leakage protection. Heliminers had methane detection equipment, with a roof mounted detector, type BM1 detection gear that in the event of methane being detected would lock the Belmos GEB out.
Mine operations were controlled from a central control room underground with a Mine Clerk in attendance 24/7. Full communications around the mine were by IS intercom system on several channels, all channels could be connected together in an emergency at the control room. The mine also had an automatic telephone exchange on the surface and IS pushbutton telephons on numerous circuits underground, there was one outside public telephone line also in the control room to call emergency/Mine Management/senior engineering staff should the need arise, this could be connected to any of the underground intercom circuits if the need arose.
I should add, ventilation was by two 1350HP fans, one situated on the north of No1 shaft, the other to the south of No1 shaft, exhausting into two shaft insets in No1 shaft just above pit bottom, this was a balanced ventilation system, the blades of each fan were variable, but had to be adjusted by manual means if required to produce more ventilation.
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Post by tygwyn on Feb 27, 2014 14:53:52 GMT -5
What size belts are on the Trunk conveyor at Boulby,and what is the total width of the belt structure?
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Post by John on Feb 27, 2014 16:35:14 GMT -5
What size belts are on the Trunk conveyor at Boulby,and what is the total width of the belt structure? Used to be 42 inch, Huwood belt structure and driven with a Huwood TB120 dual 120HP motors, no idea if that's what they are using today Jim.
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Post by tygwyn on Feb 27, 2014 16:50:56 GMT -5
Thanks John,it was about the mention of the 6m wide tunnels proposed for the new potash venture,and a poster on Aditnow said they were 4ft structures at Boulby at present,as they were saying the width of the tunnel was extreme even with a manrider alongside.
What width is a normal manrider?
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Post by John on Feb 27, 2014 16:58:28 GMT -5
Thanks John,it was about the mention of the 6m wide tunnels proposed for the new potash venture,and a poster on Aditnow said they were 4ft structures at Boulby at present,as they were saying the width of the tunnel was extreme even with a manrider alongside. What width is a normal manrider? That's like saying how longs a piece of string Jim, they are made to a customers order. We used battery personnel cars which would house a stretcher across the width of the car, five men wide is what they were, we also had six long manriding cars hauled by an electric loco, with an ambulance car the same length and width. It too could carry stretchers the width of the car. Cotgrave had loco hauled manrider in a 20 foot full diam road and there was tons of room at side of it, belts were in the other intake road. So probably 4 ft to 6 feet would be what I was used to.
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Post by tygwyn on Feb 27, 2014 17:08:24 GMT -5
That`s close enough,thanks.
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Post by John on Feb 27, 2014 18:04:30 GMT -5
That`s close enough,thanks. Just a thought Jim, on that Aditnow site, if you go to Marblaegis Mine, there are a load of photos, there is a diesel powered manrider in the photos, it's yellow in colour and the photos were taken on the surface before it went underground. Those were taken in the early 70's, the driver with the green hat was the dayshift surface electrician, can't recall his name now, too many years have passed. I was authorized to drive that machine, even for manriding. The engine drove a pump and the traction and steering were hydraulically powered. It was capable of about 20mph, but due to no springs or shock absorbers it was a cow if you drove too fast...I had a beautiful bruise on my thigh one day from that cow!! It couldn't have been more than three feet wide.
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Post by tygwyn on Feb 27, 2014 18:33:53 GMT -5
Neil an ex undermanager at Gascoine Wood put a good photo up of a belt and track in a 5.8m heading with full round rings,so a good comparison.
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Post by John on Feb 28, 2014 7:34:38 GMT -5
Neil an ex undermanager at Gascoine Wood put a good photo up of a belt and track in a 5.8m heading with full round rings,so a good comparison. I think I posted a paper on the Selby Cable Belt on here somewhere, it was a few Km's long and had rails at side of it for maintenance of the belt.
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Post by Minutor on Mar 29, 2014 5:35:52 GMT -5
Was it ICI that opened Boulby,until sale to the Israeli company, Or was another owner between? ICI owned 51% and a subsidiary of De Beers owned the other 49%, I believe ICI sold their holdings to their partner, then the whole lot was sold off to an Israeli company years back. It's not just the visual impact the surface buildings will have, they will be looking at subsidence data from Boulby, whose mining planning permits are also under renewal..I think the 49% was held by Charter Consolidated at that time a subsidiary of Anglo American Corporation of South Africa Ltd. Around 1980 ICI sold their share to Minorco a Luxembourg based affiliate of AAC (AAC owned 45% of Minorco) for a nominal amount (£10 rings a bell!) and I seem to recall the Charter Consolidated share was also transferred to Minorco. AAC then merged with Minorco in 1999 to create Anglo American plc and after a review non-core mining assets, which included Boulby were sold. ICL an Isreali company bought Boulby in 2002. I remember in the late 1970's the mine was loss making and the management at the time were pouring men into the operations without any significant increase in productivity. AAC brought in Frank Chilton as General Manager from their South African coal division, he set about reorganising the mine which resulted in a lot of redundancies. I remember he reduced the number of operating panels, changed the production shift pattern to five days a week, introduced a new maintenance regime with dedicated maintenance crews given a panel for 16 hours a week, set up a spare panel for the mining crews to operate on maintenance day, he also introduced a dedicated team for electrical panel / conveyor move-ups. He got rid of MCC and set up a CPL back-ripping crew, he closed down the "cyclic mining" cut and blast 7 Panel and decommissioned all but two or three Eimco 915's (I remember him saying if we didn't stop using them he would personally go underground and bolt them to the floor!). Panel designs were improved with the "stress relief" layout refined and adapted the mining method on panels which required blasting because of potentially gaseous "secondary ore" by using the Heliminer as a mobile loader / feeder-breaker. It was a period of rapid change but it did pay-off as the mine's operating costs were improved and in 1984 it actually made a small profit. If I could point to one person who saved Boulby it was Chilton.
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Post by John on Mar 29, 2014 7:40:13 GMT -5
Frank arrived on the scene just about the right time, he was a no nonsense Manager, learned his trade with the NCB and left the UK for SA before being too indoctrinated by the NCB. John Blower and myself were trying to get the door open on a Wecol GEB at 6-1 junction, this was our first meeting with Frank after he'd taken over, he walked around the corner and stopped and watched us hammering at the door..."Do you always treat electrical equipment like this" Only this one was our answer, he asked us why and we gave him the GEB's history.
A few days later the fitters and our staff walked off the job, can't recall the reason, but our works convener was Jim? a fitter, and he took the brunt of Frank's bluntness in the car park. We were just about to leave the site when we got instructions to proceed to the lecture room, couple of old cabins fastened together at the back of the changing rooms.
Frank was very blut and to the point effing and blinding it...After a few questions he threw to some of us and the answers he got, he said "I see we have some serious problems with moral here" He calmed down and listened to our gripes and noted everything in his notebook. Then afterwards addressed us and said he was going to kick butts..AND from now on he wanted complaints to go through our department heads and he WANTED them to reach his desk. He looked at John and myself and said that GEB were were beating would be changed at the first available conveyor downtime..He was true to his word, a replacement GEB was there waiting to be installed the following dayshift, going to the stores for parts wasn't a futile search, we started to see a larger compliment of parts when we needed them.
Another occasion I recall with Frank, I was called to an E/L trip on a GEB for No4 conveyor, the one that fed No1 ore bin, it was always extremely hot there and the electronics inside the GEB used to overheat. Behind the GEB's was to be a road leading to the Westlinks, but it hadn't been driven yet... As I was opening the door, Frank showed up and asked what the problem was, I opened the door, pulled the control module and tossed it to him, "thats the problem" I said, he caught it and nearly dropped it, "EFF, that's effin hot!!!" "Yep I said, as soon as it cools down, I'll plug it back in, box up, reset and let the job go again" He asked me all the ins and outs and how we could prevent this happening, easy I said, get some ventilation here! He had some contractors rig a venturi up blowing compressed air on the side of the GEB, cured the problem until the road was driven through.
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Post by Minutor on Mar 29, 2014 9:02:06 GMT -5
Heliminer 120HR number "H4" in 23 Panel K26N which I think was one of the West Link panels, so this would date the picture about 1980?
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Post by John on Mar 29, 2014 9:14:25 GMT -5
Heliminer 120HR number "H4" in 23 Panel K26N which I think was one of the West Link panels, so this would date the picture about 1980? I left late July/early Aug of 79, the West Links was still heading west at that time, fair way in, but hadn't turned south and no districts off of it at that time, so would have to have been taken later than August of 79... It was being driven by an HR120 with two Joy SC10's though, and all centering was done with FLP lasers set up by the Survey Department.
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Post by Minutor on Mar 29, 2014 9:32:01 GMT -5
I used to get weekend overtime on the West Link salt roads every couple of months to do some geology, used to enjoy going there, close to the pit bottom and cool, which was a rarity at Boulby! I remember the lasers, used to have to look for the little red spot on the face.
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Post by John on Mar 29, 2014 9:57:37 GMT -5
I used to get weekend overtime on the West Link salt roads every couple of months to do some geology, used to enjoy going there, close to the pit bottom and cool, which was a rarity at Boulby! I remember the lasers, used to have to look for the little red spot on the face. As I was central electrician on my shift, "C" shift, I had to cover West Links when it was in production, very rare I was called down there, but towards the last few weeks it was a fair walk!!
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Post by Minutor on Apr 1, 2014 12:37:21 GMT -5
I saw a reference that by 2012 Boulby Mine had mined 95 million tonnes of potash and salt since it started production
Quite an achievement for a mine that almost closed before it had really got going!
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Post by tygwyn on Apr 11, 2014 14:59:15 GMT -5
125 new jobs at Boulby proposed,
To extract that mineral they said that there was no market for.
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