Ch. 13: Obstacles and Perils

Page of 396

Text size:



	CHAPTER XIII

	OBSTACLES AND PERILS N the open workings the imminent hazard of maiming and death by reef slides was ever hanging over the heads of the miners. In view of the rashness with which the pit sinking was pressed, it was a marvel, indeed, that the actual loss of life was, on the whole, so small. No complete or accurate records were ever kept of the men injured or killed in prosecuting the work before the advent of systematic mining. In the journals of the Diamond Fields the most noteworthy casualties were recorded, and it is seen that in the years immediately following the undertaking of underground mining, the principal loss of life occurred from the falls of loosened pieces of blue ground or reef. This is expressly noted in the report of the Inspector of Mines at Kimberley to the Assistant Commissioner of Crown Lands on August 27, 1885. Underground mining operations in Kimberley and De Beers mines were then, he observed, becoming very hazardous. In both mines, but especially in the Kimberley mine, " some of the underground working places in diamantiferous ground are huge caverns of from 25 to 52 feet in height and 20 to 30 feet in width. The roofs of these workings, from exposure to atmosphere, shocks of blasting, and inherent weakness of the blue or diamantiferous ground, are becoming extremely unsafe ; occasionally pieces of the ground or rock fall from the high roof or sides, to the imminent danger of persons working on the floors. During the last and current months there have been three deaths in underground working places directly due to the dangerous operations 24

Page of 396