Down in the Bowels of the Earth

Down in the Bowels of the Earth, originally uploaded by royblumenthal.

This is Pierre, one of the project managers contracted to Great Basin Gold, the mine whose account I'm working on for Blue Moon Communications. That's my mining helmet illuminating his face.

We walked 1.4 kilometres down a 9 degree decline, straight into the bowels of the earth. That put us at around 300 metres below the surface when we stopped walking and turned around to go back to the surface.

It's a pretty good workout, that walk. My calves are definitely going to be shrieking tomorrow morning. Luckily, Rachel, the safety officer who took us down, had organised a vehicle to pick us up to drive us out.

The mine is not yet in production. It's still in the construction phase, which means that they're getting to the ore body. They're much more than halfway to their goal, and the particular mining technique they're using is revolutionary for South African mines in many ways.

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