Mine Exploring: The Diamond Mine Part 3 - LHD Discovery!

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• published: 15 Nov 2017
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The rehabbed lower workings were interesting, but at the top of the raise, we’re getting into some really interesting sections of this abandoned mine... These “interesting sections” start right out with the discovery of an LHD (Load-Haul-Dump) seemingly forgotten underground. I was absolutely staggered to discover it there as I certainly did not expect to see such a large piece of machinery at the top of a raise that was not much bigger than I am. I believe this LHD was brought underground by a mining company that operated this mine up until the 1990s. The small workshop near the LHD and the rehab work in this part of the mine seem to date to around this time as well. On a separate trip, we were exploring around some old bunkhouses and a modern workshop on the surface (locked up or I would have included it in a video) at a separate location to those featured in the first video (but still connected to the mine) and I found the remains of a large collapsed adit that was almost completely obscured by brush. The brush and the adit appeared to be about twenty years old and the proximity to the modern workshop makes me believe that this is where they drove the LHD down from. Also, the location of the surface buildings seemed to correspond roughly to where I thought we were situated underground. Although, of course, it is possible that they brought the LHD up the raise in pieces. You’ll notice that I leave one branch of the upper workings unexplored. That branch was far, far more significant than I realized at the time, but don’t worry, in the next video I will start heading toward that unexplored section starting from the other side of the mine (literally miles away from where we went in from this side) and I will eventually connect up with where I left off there. As promised, on the way out, I hit the fork that went off to the left and I go up the wooden ladder to the levels above. The raise that was off of the left fork was in the process of being rehabbed as you can see from the recent activity, but I don’t know what the miner’s plan was for this raise. I didn’t see that it ran into the ancient river channel and so it may have been some sort of emergency escape passage or it may have run into the channel higher up and I just didn’t see it. Either way, it seemed like an unfinished project. The levels I hit by following the wooden ladder up were obviously quite old as indicated by the collapses and rotted timbers up there (and may even have been part of another mine). However, the wood in the ladder and in the proximity of the grizzly was new though and so there had been some recent rehab work done in this section. I didn’t see any sign of actual mining though (although I don’t know what was on the other side of that wooden platform that was above me). ***** All of these videos are uploaded in HD, so adjust those settings to ramp up the quality! It really does make a difference… You can click here for the full playlist of abandoned mines: https://goo.gl/TEKq9L If you like these videos on exploring abandoned mines, please subscribe! https://goo.gl/yjPxH1 Thanks for watching! ***** Growing up in California’s “Gold Rush Country” made it easy to take all of the history around us for granted. However, abandoned mine sites have a lot working against them – nature, vandals, scrappers and various government agencies… The old prospectors and miners that used to roam our lonely mountains and toil away deep underground are disappearing quickly as well. These losses finally caught our attention and we felt compelled to make an effort to document as many of the ghost towns and abandoned mines that we could before that niche of our history is gone forever. But, guess what? We have fun doing it! This is exploring history firsthand – bushwhacking down steep canyons and over rough mountains, figuring out the techniques the miners used and the equipment they worked with, seeing the innovations they came up with, discovering lost mines that no one has been in for a hundred years, wandering through ghost towns where the only sound is the wind... These journeys allow a feeling of connection to a time when the world was a very different place. And I’d love to think that in some small way we are paying tribute to those hardy miners that worked these mines before we were even born. So, yes, in short, we are adit addicts… I hope you’ll join us on these adventures! #ExploringAbandonedMines #MineExploring #AbandonedMines #UndergroundMineExploring