Re hoisting in inclined shafts --

The Mosaboni copper mine in Bihar, India, where I worked from 1958 to 1960,
and visited again in 1983, (see article in Mining Magazine, November 1983,
pages 343 to 353), hoisted all ore in skips in a twin-tracked  inclined
"Main Shaft", whose inclination was 38 degrees. This went down to Twelve
Level (level intervals about 100 feet).

At this horizon there was a transfer point, where the skips were filled,
via surge bins and hoppers, from other skips working in "No.1 Sub-incline
Shaft" (inclination 25 degrees) that served levels twelve to twenty.

>From Level Twenty, three further sub-incline shafts (No 2 North, No 2
Central and No 2 South, also at 25 degrees) were sunk, initially to 25
level and later to 30 level.

Ore from stopes on production levels was hand-trammed to ore passes, down
which it was tipped to the main haulage levels, on levels 16, 20, 25 and
30. Trains ran on each of these levels, carrying ore to the central shaft
system. The multiple handling of ore from one sub-incline to the next on
its way to surface was, in 1983, proving to be one of the major production
bottlenecks.

A vertical shaft served Twenty Level, but was used mainly for men,
materials and ventilation, the ore processing facilities being clustered
around the mouth of the inclined "Main Shaft". The latter had been
developed in the 1930s.

Ore hoisting was carried out mainly on afternoon and night shifts, the
morning "day" shift being mainly used for transport of materials (timber
props, etc) into the mine. At shift change-over times, the skips were
unhooked, and man-riding carriages attached in their place.

For my last ten months at Mosaboni, I was shift-boss in charge of the
sinking of the No 2 South sub-incline shaft. I didn't have the heart to
tell my Muslim pipe-fitter (all pipefitters in the mine were Mohamedans)
that South Shaft actually went southwest, so when he got down on his plank
of wood to say his prayers in mid-shift, he wasn't actually facing Mecca.
It was a bit of a trial, sometimes, waiting patiently for him to finish his
prayers before asking him to go and fix a burst compressed air main, but it
was written in my contract not to interfere with local religious customs.

Tony Brewis


%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%