Shaft Mining

Shaft mine     Shaft mining is the deepest form of underground mining. Underground mining is chosen when the rock or mineral is too far to reach using surface mining.  Shaft mining is the kind of mine that you usually see in movies where the miner travels straight down into a deep, dark tunnel [shaft] until he reaches the bottom. 
   The shaft mine has a vertical manshaft, a tunnel where the men travel up and down in an elevator.  Equipment is taken into the mine using this shaft, too.   Short tunnels to the ore are dug from that manshaft [see diagram].  When the ore is dynamited and broken into chunks, it is taken to the top and loaded into trucks through a second shaft. There is usually an airshaft that gives the mine ventilation.  When we visited a coal mine, it was amazing how much air moved around in the tunnels.  Moving air removes the gases that are naturally underground. 
    Tunnels are deepened and the mine is made larger until there isn’t any ore left, or it costs too much money to get it out.  Even though those old movies show abandoned mines that spooky people travel through, most mines are filled with some kind of cement or filler when mining is done.  This keeps the land around it from sinking when the inside mine beams rot away.  It is a safer way to close a mine.