James Collings, John Cooper, Simon Richards (Nik-Nak), Adrian Vanderplank and Jude Vanderplank. Replaced ladders on Nut pitch for the session (ie brought them out again). Adrian drilling the bottom stal shielded from the drips by Nik-Nak. Jude loading stones at the bottom of Four-Tonne Shaft, John in the middle and James above hauling and chucking the stones into the Pit. 26 loads before we ran out of stones and the people at the bottom were ready. Chased out by fumes! 2 hours. John.
John
Cooper, James Collings, NikNak, Jude & Myself. Two objectives
for the night. 1) to bang the bottom of the dig (South Side). 2) to clear some
of the spoil at the bottom of 4 ton shaft. With those
objectives in mind NikNak & myself to the bottom with Jude, John &
James to 4 tonne shaft. NikNak & Myself
drilled 5 300 – 400mm holes (12)gm in the South Side of the rift. The 3 metres
of 40gm cord was loaded in the holes and connected up. Jude & crew
had finished clearing the bottom of 4 ton shaft. NikNak & I
decided that since there had been negligible amounts of draught from the bottom
of the shaft in the last few months that we would fire the charge from the
bottom of the shaft. I fired the
charge, and before I had even time to put the exploder away, the fumes had
passed us and were disappearing up the shaft passing us, Jude and James who
was on Nut pitch on the way out. Since there was
a major draught as a result of the Bang has the explosion broken through into
an area that has an air track to whatever is below. Exciting times! Adrian.