About Me
- andy
- I'm like any other uni student. I like clubbing, parties with friends and surfing if I can get a chance. I grew up in Townsville and miss my great friends there, the strand and maggie, but I still get time to have fun in brissie. I'm studying Civil and Construction Engineering at QUT, and I'm finding it a lot more interesting than most people would think. I'm also doing a mining minor at UQ at the same time so that I can work in the mining industry. I hope to work on mine sites once I graduate, because I love the friendliness in small towns, and it's always more fun to brag about being involved in massive projects. Drop me an email at andrea.dale@connect.qut.edu.au if you want to know more :)
Tuesday, August 31, 2010
Vac Work
I wish the semester was over so I could get out there!! I'm pretty stoked, because I've been offered an awesome project where I get to blow stuff up. It sounds really interesting, which is great because I have to spend all next year working on it for uni. I get to go on site collecting data for 3 months for vac work, then try and analyse it during next year. I'm really excited because it sounds like it could really make a difference. I'm just hoping I can find some answers.
Wednesday, August 25, 2010
Vac Work
The Vac Work applications have started closing, but there are still heaps of companies that are still open to applications. I'm hoping to get Vac work blowing stuff up. It's awesome that we can go play with explosives, and get paid to do it, while still at uni. I just wish there were more Vac Work periods - there are so many things I want to try, like metals/underground/Owner Operators/blasting. The only thing I don't like is writing applications. The graduate applications start early next year. I can't wait to get a job so I can stop writing applications!!
If you're stuck on where to start, or want to know when applications open or anything about Vac work at all, check out this link:
http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/group.php?gid=9793520199
If you're stuck on where to start, or want to know when applications open or anything about Vac work at all, check out this link:
http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/group.php?gid=9793520199
Monday, August 9, 2010
Cobar Seminar
The actual seminar was great, but the site visits were awesome. The seminar put me to sleep until lunch. I know VERY little about geo, and it was all geo talk which I don't understand. The most interesting thing I got out of it was that apparently in Cobar the geo has basically been turned upside down.
After lunch was great. There was talk of pastefill amongst other things. Pastefill is essentially tailings (waste) with cement added. This is pumped into the voids underground, and work can continue underneath, or adjacent. I would prefer to work under it than the natural ground, because it's an 'engineered' product, and you know it's capacity. Rock on the other hand, can be pretty unpredictable.
Dinner after the seminar was pretty good, and I met a lot of people during the day. Unfortunately I had to leave the dinner around 10pm to get some sleep for the drive back the next day :(
My car got completely iced each night, here is the remains after an hour of driving.
Not nice to think that you will see both sunrise and sunset while driving, but it's still pretty.
There is actually a shire called Bogan Shire. Including a "Welcome to Bogan Shire" sign.
Not my River...
Here is my creek though.
I even had to follow them back in Bris!! I can't escape them!!!!
After lunch was great. There was talk of pastefill amongst other things. Pastefill is essentially tailings (waste) with cement added. This is pumped into the voids underground, and work can continue underneath, or adjacent. I would prefer to work under it than the natural ground, because it's an 'engineered' product, and you know it's capacity. Rock on the other hand, can be pretty unpredictable.
Dinner after the seminar was pretty good, and I met a lot of people during the day. Unfortunately I had to leave the dinner around 10pm to get some sleep for the drive back the next day :(
My car got completely iced each night, here is the remains after an hour of driving.
Not nice to think that you will see both sunrise and sunset while driving, but it's still pretty.
There is actually a shire called Bogan Shire. Including a "Welcome to Bogan Shire" sign.
Not my River...
Here is my creek though.
I even had to follow them back in Bris!! I can't escape them!!!!
Endeavour Mine
In case there are any budding geo's out there, this is the riveting life of a geo. These are core samples, and are really interesting for some. Looking at rocks like this is a bit boring for me, but it's what mining is all about. Also the reason for a lot of headaches when the unexpected turns up.
Cobar Heritage Park
An underground bogger or LHD (load haul dump). It's name varies depending on what state you are in. In QLD, they are usually referred to as LHD's.
This made me laugh. There was moss growing on the LHD, and I'm pretty sure it couldn't start anyway, yet it was still tagged out.
To give you an idea of height - I'm about 175cm, and around the same height as the loader. This is the operator's seat beside me. You can see in the other pics they had to sit sideways.
Heritage Centre opposite the park.
More Cobar
More pics of the arches.
Underground Truck
Underground workshop. This is a very impressive underground workshop. Huge, with a gantry crane and everything.
My jumbo :)
The ‘Welcome to Cobar’ Slag Dump
The old open cut.
Map of Cobar
Underground Truck
Underground workshop. This is a very impressive underground workshop. Huge, with a gantry crane and everything.
My jumbo :)
The ‘Welcome to Cobar’ Slag Dump
The old open cut.
Map of Cobar
Sunday, August 8, 2010
Cobar
Finally arrived in Cobar at 8.30pm. Very cold, and I was glad to crawl into bed. I was booked for a pub room, but ended up with a motel room. It looked like the door had been punched in before, but that's what you get for $30/night.
Had a bit of a sleep in the next morning, before getting to site (Peak Mines) at 7:15am. It was my first trip underground, and I was VERY excited. It was awesome. I was disappointed to leave, but at least I had another trip underground to look forward to straight after! The guys at Peak were fantastic, and I really enjoyed the tour. Check out the pics :)
This is really nerdy, but really cool. These undulating arches can withstand the massive ground pressures underground. Check out the pic below of the drive to the right of this, with the same conditions, which is a mess with the usual mesh and rock bolts.
Same conditions, completely different results. They dumped waste rock in the entrance to block it off because it was considered unsafe.
This one is awesome - it's the raise boring machine for a 4.5m diameter, almost 1km deep hole they are doing. It's placed on the surface, and a reamer head is attached to it at the bottom of the pilot hole. Think of the power this machine has!!! The pieces on the right connect together to attach between the reamer head and machine.
Wiki's explanation: A raise borer is a machine used in underground mining, to excavate a circular hole between two levels of a mine without the use of explosives.
The raise borer is set up on the upper level of the two levels to be connected, on an evenly laid platform (typically a concrete pad). A small-diameter hole (pilot hole) is drilled to the level required; the diameter of this hole is typically 230mm - 350mm (9" - 15"), large enough to accommodate the drill string. Once the drill has broken into the opening on the target level, the bit is removed and a reamer head, of the required diameter of the excavation, is attached to the drill string and raised back towards the machine. The drill cuttings from the reamer head fall to the floor of the lower level. The finished raise has smooth walls and may not require rock bolting or other forms of ground support.[1]
http://construction.gautrain.co.za/2009/04/raise-boring-technology-used-on-gautrain/
Had a bit of a sleep in the next morning, before getting to site (Peak Mines) at 7:15am. It was my first trip underground, and I was VERY excited. It was awesome. I was disappointed to leave, but at least I had another trip underground to look forward to straight after! The guys at Peak were fantastic, and I really enjoyed the tour. Check out the pics :)
This is really nerdy, but really cool. These undulating arches can withstand the massive ground pressures underground. Check out the pic below of the drive to the right of this, with the same conditions, which is a mess with the usual mesh and rock bolts.
Same conditions, completely different results. They dumped waste rock in the entrance to block it off because it was considered unsafe.
This one is awesome - it's the raise boring machine for a 4.5m diameter, almost 1km deep hole they are doing. It's placed on the surface, and a reamer head is attached to it at the bottom of the pilot hole. Think of the power this machine has!!! The pieces on the right connect together to attach between the reamer head and machine.
Wiki's explanation: A raise borer is a machine used in underground mining, to excavate a circular hole between two levels of a mine without the use of explosives.
The raise borer is set up on the upper level of the two levels to be connected, on an evenly laid platform (typically a concrete pad). A small-diameter hole (pilot hole) is drilled to the level required; the diameter of this hole is typically 230mm - 350mm (9" - 15"), large enough to accommodate the drill string. Once the drill has broken into the opening on the target level, the bit is removed and a reamer head, of the required diameter of the excavation, is attached to the drill string and raised back towards the machine. The drill cuttings from the reamer head fall to the floor of the lower level. The finished raise has smooth walls and may not require rock bolting or other forms of ground support.[1]
http://construction.gautrain.co.za/2009/04/raise-boring-technology-used-on-gautrain/
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