Mollie Mines

Today is Workers Memorial Day which is a day to remember those who have died in the workplace and of rededicating our commitment to safety. This day first became important to me in 2012 after the death of my coworker, Alan Cambell, due to a fall in an underground gold mine. I wasn't there when it happened but nonetheless, it impacted me. Alan was the type of guy who always had extra earplugs in his pockets and would give you a pair if he thought your were too dirty to put back in and might cause an ear infection. Alan was the type of guy who would carry extra food and give me some if I was starting to get cranky. Alan was just the type of person you wanted to work around because he cared and was an all around good guy. When Alan died, I was shocked. Alan had been clearing blast holes around a stope and had failed to wear his fall protection and the floor gave way beneath him sending 100 feet to his death. I struggled to understand how someone who had cared so much whether or not my...

My freshman year of college I took an introduction to agriculture class and the professor told us that the average American is three generations removed from agriculutre and farming. In my experience in mining and conversing with people outside the industry I've thought about this statistic a lot and have the belief that the average American is at least five generations removed from mining. A lot of people, especially my family, don't understand why I would ever want to work in the mining industry. For me, it's simple. I absolutely love mining. I love getting to see things everyday that most people never get to see in their lifetime. To me the milling and metallurgical processes are like magic for adults. Mining is like my own grown up version of Fraggle Rock. I get to work with equipment that's bigger than the house I grew up in and it's still completely acceptable to collect pretty rocks I find no matter how old I get. As if all that wasn't good enough, I get ...

While I was in Elko, NV for the summer I made many trips to Utah. It is one of the few states that my family never vactioned to as a child. While it may not be a place that immediately comes to mind when you think vacation it is definitely worth a visit. There are so many neat little towns and gorgeous mountain scenery everywhere you look. The must see tourist attraction on my list was of course Kennecott Utah Copper's Bingham Canyon Mine. It is the king of open pit mines and is the largest man made excavation in the world. There are two distinct man made features astronauts can see from outerspace and they are The Great Wall of China and the Bingham Canyon copper mine. The mine is about a 30 minute drive from Salt Lake City which is full of great views the whole way. The mine visitors center boasts a very nice museum of Kennecott mining history and lots of models of mining equipment as well as videos explaining the mining process. They did a great job of creating exhibits that any...

A couple weeks ago I went to Jarbidge, NV for the weekend. Jarbidge is an unincorporated community in Elko County. It lies on the edge of the Jarbidge Wilderness, approximately 10 miles south of the Idaho/Nevada border. Noted locally for its remoteness, the community is usually accessed by road from Rogerson in Twin Falls County, Idaho. There is an 80-mile-long dirt road to Jarbidge heading north from the Deeth exit of Interstate 80; it is usually open only from late June until October due to snow. The community lies on the West Fork of the Jarbidge River. Gold was discovered near Jarbidge in 1909, making it the site of one of the last gold rushes in the Old West and, incidentally was the site of the last stagecoach robbery in 1916. Its population swelled to near 2000 in 1911, but afterwards began a slow decline when the mining facilities were largely cannibalized for the war effort during WWI. Mining operations ceased completely in 1932, however there is still some mining activity i...

Over the weekend I drove to Denio, NV to visit the Royal Peacock Opal Mine. My roommate this summer is a geology student and I heard her speak many times of wanting to go and mine for opals. It was a long drive into the middle of nowhere Nevada but very scenic and as the majority of the drive was on backroads I could drive as fast as I wanted to which I enoyed very much. The mine is located within a wildlife refuge that offers camping and lots of nature viewing. When I got there I was greeted by a very nice woman who was more than happy to take my money and explain how to mine the opals. I went for the more expesive option which was mining the bank for $180/day which also allows you to mine the tailings which is $75/day. When she said that mining the bank was hard work she wasn't kidding. She sent me with a guide who turned out to be a seismologist from Fiji who was there visiting for a week and her two kids that were around the age of 10. We drove out to the mine and I was shown ...

I recently went home to St. Louis, Missouri to surprise my dad for Father's Day. I took him and my mom to spend the day in the old mining town of Bonne Terre, Missouri which is part of the Old Lead Belt. The highlight of the day was our tour of Bonne Terre Mine. The mine was the first in the network of St. Joe Minerals lead mines that led to Missouri producing 70 percent of the United States' lead. Neither of my parents had been to a mine and I wanted to them to have an understanding of the environment I spend a lot of my time in. One of the neatest things about Bonne Terre Mine is that three levels are underwater which is used for scuba diving. We did the combination walking and boating tour. The method of mining used at Bonne Terre was room and pillar which is essentially a large cave like room with pillars of rock left to prevent the mine from caving in. The tour took us to a portion of the mine where we were able to see old remanants of mining equipment and natually occurin...

I believe that everyone experiences multiple moments of clarity throughout their lives that determine the path they walk in life. I currently find myself in the midst of a lot of change in my life and keep thinking about those moments of clarity that got me here. Those moment of clarity that I can clearly remember are: 1) Watching my first re-run of Rin Tin Tin K-9 Cop as a child and deciding I wanted to be a police officer when I grew up 2) Being in the middle of a sparring match in the police academeny and realizing that perhaps my short stature didn't make a very good match for the career I had chosen 3) Walking down the aisle at my wedding when I was 22 and thinking that I was probably making a big mistake 4) Thinking that the professor of my Introduction to Occupational Safety and Health class at Murray State University, Dr. Fender, was crazy when he started the semester by blaring the 80's song The Safety Dance from his computer before the first class yet being strage...