Mojave Underground Inc has been working with Leo Ault, the land and minerals owner of the Ophir Hill Mine, to extract a rare and hard to find incline ore cart from deep within the mine.
We first started planning our extraction methods about two months ago when Leo mentioned he wouldn't mind that cart out. Since he has been so amazing to us, letting us into his mine to explore, we are more than happy to lend a hand of service to him. The incline cart sat about 3500' down the main haulage tunnel. It was wedged up against the wall, sitting in mud and debris, making it incredibly difficult to move. The gauge of the incline car is much wider than that of the haulage tunnel's rails, preventing the cart from riding the rails in any means. Brett, Derek, Stu, Crystal, Miah, and I were able to first move the cart with a formidable amount of prying and manhandling. We managed to move it 300 feet through semi-clean tunnel, but the effort exhausted us all. Miah put his mind to work, and actually designed a steel cart that ran on the main tracks rails, and is designed to carry the incline cart perfectly on top of it. We pulled our new cart back with Shawn's ATV. A section of the mine is shored up too low to accomodate the incline cart on the new cart, so we had to carefully pull the incline cart through these sections with the ATV, and guided straight by the rest of us. Once we hit good tunnel, we placed a section of rail down that would allow us to tow the cart up to drop it onto the new cart. It was a bit dangerous and time consuming, as it had to be pulled up with a come-along, but we were able to get it up without any incidents.
Once the incline cart was securely strapped onto the new cart, we hooked the ATV back up again and towed it all the way out! There was a section of dirt, about 30' wide and 2 feet deep, the had to be dug out. It took about an hour with all of us. The rails are now clear all the way back. Once the cart was parked alongside its two others, we broke for lunch, grabbed some snacks and drinks, and went back into the mine for a few more hours of fun exploration.
Thanks so much to everybody who donated hours and $$$ to help this project go through. We are very happy to say that there was not a single safety incident of any kind, and that the owner is ecstatic that we were able to get the cart out for him.
PHOTOS FROM THE EVENT: http://mojaveunderground.com/gallery...g2_itemId=6712
[web:a7ecdb00ec]http://mojaveunderground.com/gallery/main.php?g2_itemId=6712[/web:a7ecdb00ec]
Stu's video::
CaverStretch's video can be found here:
We first started planning our extraction methods about two months ago when Leo mentioned he wouldn't mind that cart out. Since he has been so amazing to us, letting us into his mine to explore, we are more than happy to lend a hand of service to him. The incline cart sat about 3500' down the main haulage tunnel. It was wedged up against the wall, sitting in mud and debris, making it incredibly difficult to move. The gauge of the incline car is much wider than that of the haulage tunnel's rails, preventing the cart from riding the rails in any means. Brett, Derek, Stu, Crystal, Miah, and I were able to first move the cart with a formidable amount of prying and manhandling. We managed to move it 300 feet through semi-clean tunnel, but the effort exhausted us all. Miah put his mind to work, and actually designed a steel cart that ran on the main tracks rails, and is designed to carry the incline cart perfectly on top of it. We pulled our new cart back with Shawn's ATV. A section of the mine is shored up too low to accomodate the incline cart on the new cart, so we had to carefully pull the incline cart through these sections with the ATV, and guided straight by the rest of us. Once we hit good tunnel, we placed a section of rail down that would allow us to tow the cart up to drop it onto the new cart. It was a bit dangerous and time consuming, as it had to be pulled up with a come-along, but we were able to get it up without any incidents.
Once the incline cart was securely strapped onto the new cart, we hooked the ATV back up again and towed it all the way out! There was a section of dirt, about 30' wide and 2 feet deep, the had to be dug out. It took about an hour with all of us. The rails are now clear all the way back. Once the cart was parked alongside its two others, we broke for lunch, grabbed some snacks and drinks, and went back into the mine for a few more hours of fun exploration.
Thanks so much to everybody who donated hours and $$$ to help this project go through. We are very happy to say that there was not a single safety incident of any kind, and that the owner is ecstatic that we were able to get the cart out for him.
PHOTOS FROM THE EVENT: http://mojaveunderground.com/gallery...g2_itemId=6712
[web:a7ecdb00ec]http://mojaveunderground.com/gallery/main.php?g2_itemId=6712[/web:a7ecdb00ec]
Stu's video::
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K9W7N-TvG84[/youtube]
CaverStretch's video can be found here:
Many thanks to Mike for all the reasons he knows , Stuart for your intimate knowledge of the mine which you know like the palm of you hand, Crystal [for passing out Mine Team patches--the first thing Brannan did upon arrving home was to camera photo the patch and email it with envy to all his friends], Miah for that time saving CTU [cart transportation unit], Robert--for climbing half way to the surface to reclaim a Hercules powder box yet returning on time with a grin from ear to ear, to Brandon for keeping my gang company and checking on me as I seemed to always be out of breath--it was just the spectacular underground scenery that was taking my breath away 
) We will take a look at that project and figure-out a plan. Couldn't have had more fun or gotten more sore doing anything else! These opportunities come along few and far between, and it's great to have such an enthusiastic group to share them with!
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