A Salute To A Fearless Few

Whenever we feature a story about a mining company working in some far-off place where God’s not even sure of the co-ordinates, I always think of two things: how did the company find the site in the first place and secondly; who drew the short straw when it came to physically staking out that property?

I mean, really, who with a real choice in the matter wants to climb to the top of mountains where there’s little oxygen or conversely, be literally dropped into the swampy, bug-infested floor of a heavily canopied jungle?

Not me, that’s for sure!

Call me a wimp, chicken, sissy or whatever is most popular with today’s linguists, but I simply can’t imagine working at some mines. Before you get too surprised, or even upset by this comment, notice that I said at and not in because as we all know, there’s a big difference.

And here’s what I mean. First of all, working in many mines is really not that much different than working at many other rugged, hands-on types of jobs. Sure it’s often darker and dirtier, but steelworkers, pipe layers, even road builders and some factory workers have jobs that are just as tough and nasty.

Working at some mines, however, is totally different because the word at refers to where they’re located and as I’ve already mentioned, many mines are in some very less-than-desirable places. In fact, they’re often found at bloody miserable places where not even the locals want to work. Nor, in many cases, will they!

For instance, you couldn’t pay me enough to work in, or at for that matter, a Chinese coal mine but on the other hand, working in some mines in more humane parts of the world is a different story. They may still be located far away from civilization as we know it, but many are not without some trappings from the modern world.

Remote working and living conditions, both above and below ground, can sometimes rival those of small rural towns. For instance, training, recreational and medical centres in some mines are often well equipped with the latest tools and toys of modern society.

In other words, life in many mines is not really that bad. It’s the mines that are located at bad places that I’m talking about.

We’ve all heard the saying: “It’s a nice place to visit but I wouldn’t want to live there” and when put into context with what I’m saying about mines and their locations, it also means a place that you were happy to have visited (once), but were happier to have left behind.

Simply, a place you’d never want to call home.

In mining, however, there often are no choices and I salute those ‘fearless few,’ also known as Prospectors and Geologists, who thrive on such surroundings. Where they hang their hats, regardless of how harsh and nasty it is, truly is their home and without their willingness to overcome difficult working environments, mining would not be the adventurous and exciting industry it is today and the world would be a lot poorer.