This is a post from another thread. Interesting thoughts regarding the water in the tunnel. Anyone know what the current technology regarding this issue is? I just hear that it is possible, but some details would be good to hear... of course the tailings can fund it but how much will it cost and what risks are involved?

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The water being there is good, but only in the sense and in the context that it has been the problem others couldn't solve that is the primary reason the mines have never had modern methods applied. If the water weren't there, there wouldn't be an opportunity, but it is there, and it is a problem that it is there. Prior efforts by others have failed in getting that problem figured out... or failed in funding the effort to a level that enabled making it happen.

Most similar properties out west were mined again after the financial panics around the mid to late 1800's, up to the point where WWI, or WWII, pulled the men and stripped materials out of the mines. The water means there is likely still a resource there that is well worth having... but the water is 1000 feet deep... meaning it is putting around 450 pounds per square inch of pressure on the rocks near the bottom of the shafts. You obviously have to get it out before you can do anything with what is there. The prior efforts to remove it were terminated for safety reasons.

Pierre tells me that it won't be that big a deal now, since the drilling technology we have now is so much better than what we had then. Use the same sort of equipment you use in drilling an oil well, and you can handle the pressures... so can tap into the water to begin draining the mine safely. The pressure of the water is in a range that is often and easily handled by the right equipment in drilling oil and gas wells.

The history says the mine filled to the current level in TWO YEARS after being shut down... so, it seems there may be other issues with the need to drain it and keep it drained, which will not be an issue, perhaps, after you drain it the first time. Hook up a pump ? How big is the well bore going to be, and how rapidly will it be drained WHEN that work gets done ?
What will it cost to do it, and when is it going to get done ?

I'm told it won't be that big a deal, and won't cost that much... so, do it ? I'd rather see that work be done before bothering with hauling more rocks off the mountain. It will have a lot more meaning to gain access to be able to evaluate the prior workings than to move surface ores.

Of course, once the water is "out"... is it ? I guess someone is going to have to go poking around those old, wet shafts after they are drained, to find out what other shafts might have been filled and not drained by the single hole drilled to the bottom of a single shaft ? I think until you do that, you don't know what else is going to be required to make the mines workable again. And, of course, until you do that, you also won't have access to take samples that will show what sort of stuff is still readily available at the mine face in the old workings.

Modern methods have never been applied to mapping the existing mine, either, so there are a lot of open questions about where things are in relation to each other. A part of that, for which the old maps are probably good enough, is that you'll need an estimate of how much water the old workings contain, and how long, at what rate, it will take to drain and/or pump it all out of there. Maybe they have all that figured out already... have had engineers sign off on it, have the plans in hand, the equipment lined up, just waiting for a date from a contractor who has seen it all and has agreed to drill that hole ? Hmmm. I don't think the environmental impacts will be critical, given the nature of the rock... but, the water has to go somewhere... and where it goes, how it gets there, and the impact it has when it does isn't stuff you can just ignore. Water coming out of a 3 inch or larger "hose" cut through the rock, coming out at 450 psi ? What volume is that going to flow, and how fast will that stream of water be moving ? Etc.

My understanding is that prior efforts planned to drill from the top of the mountain to intersect the prior workings, and then intersect the Sinker Tunnel.. allowing the mine to drain.
That would mean drilling through a couple thousand feet of granite. The granite is old, maybe not the worst stuff you could find to drill through, but...

The current plan seems to be to do what the original plan for the Sinker Tunnel envisioned... which got pulled for safety reasons when it turned out they didn't really have a plan for how to do it safely. Then, it seems, the plan was to have the miners tunnel up underneath and into the standing column of water 1000 feet deep, completing the tunnel, draining the mine... and killing the miners. Now, modern technology is supposed to enable doing that safely. I'm still wanting to see the plan, who the contractor is, and all the the equipment on site, before I'll be ready to say "Yeah, that looks like it will work."

I've done some stupidly dangerous stuff in my day... but, I'm not thinking you'll want to have a crowd of onlookers hanging around inside the Sinker Tunnel just to see how things go. I'll be hanging out at the Hotel having a beer. Let me know how it works out.

I don't have any objections to the CONCEPT and do see that what they propose will work... but, there is a difference between a concept and a proper ability to execute a plan to implement the concept, and that difference matters. It looks and sounds pretty easy considered from your living room. Sitting two miles inside a mountain inside a tunnel packed with drilling equipment with a column of water a thousand feet high right over your head, drilling up into it ? If an oil rig blows out because you lose a seal... you might get hurt or killed, but, you also might be blown away from the source of the problem and live to run away. A blow out in a narrow tunnel 2 miles away from the opening ? Good luck.

The advantages you have are that you will need to be able to use the Sinker Tunnel to move ore down and out to make the mine economic, and need it to drain the old workings, and most of that work is already done... having the Sinker Tunnel already done is a HUGE advantage... just need to drill a few hundred feet up...

The water is the biggest obstacle to showing there is value left in the old mines and how much. It is the biggest obstacle to being able to mine what is there, whatever is... and it is the biggest obstacle to being able to mine economically, using the Sinker Tunnel.

So... I'm not going to be getting too excited about much, here, until after I see that "minor" obstacle that has stymied others efforts for around the last 140 years has been removed.