In early December Carter and I went on a field trip with his class to Britannia Mine. I came here two years ago with Callie and was lucky enough to be picked as one of the four parent volunteers for Carter's trip too. I'm quite impressed with what they've done with this historic site. BC isn't very old so we don't have a lot of interesting historic sights in comparison to places I've been in the US or eastern Canada. This mine closed in the mid 70's and sat empty for many years before being turned into a historic site and they did some major upgrades a few years ago.
We broken into groups and Carter's group was the first one to get to go on the mine train. The mine goes 1.5 km down but the mine train is at the top and goes just a short distance into the mountain. The train travels a few hundred meters and stops at a dead end where the guide shows you the various types of mining equipment including pick and shovel, various types of air tools and the first kinds of mechanized equipment. All very small scale compared to some of the equipment they show outside the mine including a mine truck and a much bigger mechanized shovel.
We finished off with a bit of gold mining. Apparently the mine seeds their mining area with about $25k of gold dust each year and gives you the opportunity to pan for gold. I'm glad they heat the water because it was only about 2 degrees and cold water would not have been fun. I've been gold panning a few times now so I knew what technique to use. I found a few flakes and then helped Carter with his. He managed to find four flakes, some pyrite and some other rare minerals. He was very excited. Gold Fever!
No comments:
Post a Comment