NINE MAN CAGE TO WORK – 1967
Perhaps my most exhilarating ride to work was my baptism to working underground. I had put my feet on the threshold of a dream to work in the bowels of the earth.
It was at Con Mine, Yellowknife, Canada in 1967. ‘The Land of the Midnight Sun’. This long established gold mine on the southern shores of the Great Slave Lake, had working levels extending to a depth of 5,200 feet. My first shift was located on the 4,200 feet level.
Getting to the worksite required dropping 2,600 feet in a nine man cage, suspended by a cable. On arrival at this level we would take an electric locomotive for a mile and a half ride out under the waters of the Great Slave Lake. At another shaft, we would enter another nine man cage and descend to our work levels. The levels were spaced every 200 feet.
At the surface was a crib room, where we changed into our work clothes, boots, helmet, battery belt and picked up our light to affix to our helmet. I joined the 24 others on my shift for the short walk to the poppet head at the mine entrance. I was outfitted in my crisp, clean work gear, surrounded by the hardened miners waiting my turn to enter the cage. My mind was buzzing, but I could barely hide my nervousness, as I watched men pack into the small cage and disappear below.
We were the third cage load to descend. I packed in tight with joking colleagues. One shut the gate and pulled the cord to let the winchman know we were ready to proceed to level 2600. There was no room to move. We pressed against each other, as if sardines in a can. Before we had dropped 500 feet, the cage jerked and jumped, my heart in my mouth, as we hit loose timber guides in the shaft. The other’s laughed anticipating the new chum’s panic!
When lowered to our destination, the cage slowed and bounced on its long length of cable, until it settled inches from the 2600 level. We alighted, another miner, shut the gate, pulled the cord to signal ‘all clear’, and the cage ascended to the surface once again.
Once all 24 men on our shift were aboard the train, we were taken to the secondary shaft sitting back to back on the long benches of the flat cars. We then entered the cage in order of depth of our work site. I was to be taken in the third cage to the 4200 level, with my new colleague, Eugene. He was to be my mentor and show me the ropes of underground mining. We arrived at our level and disembarked the cage for the day’s shift.
The station at the shaft was rather large. I was impressed as I shone my light about me. Overhead lights were fixtures at each level’s station. I saw about me the grizzly, where ore bearing rock is tipped for transportation to the surface mill. A little further away was the locomotive battery chargers, where decks of batteries were plugged into power sockets to charge overnight. There were boxes for storage of explosives, with another for fuses and detonators, There were pneumatic hoses, oil bottles, railway sleepers and rails orderly stored. Upon loading a recharged battery deck to a locomotive, we ventured into the drive pulling five ore cars. We were totally reliant on our helmet light to see then. The lights had adjustable beams from narrow to wide, which offered different intensity of light.
I briefly turned off my light and experienced the foreboding blackness of the world deep inside Con Mine. I was captivated by my surroundings and the excitement of earning an income this way. I felt at ease in this environment, so removed from the outside world.
I became a trammer, and learned to operate muck machines, slushers, and jack leg drills. All powered by compressed air. With a partner, we moved the rock to the grizzly for transportation to the surface. What rock did not fall through the grizzly, we broke up with large sledge hammers. It was hot, often smokey work, but I relished the challenge. We carried ammonia capsules to snap under our noses, if the smoke affected us. This soon cleared our focus and we toiled on. I worked in Con Mine for eighteen months.