Low Ride Grader

At the risk of sounding like an old white guy, the CAT grader looks like it should have neon lighting in the undercarriage and a high-wattage stereo with pounding sub-woofers you can feel 3 lanes over :)

No A1? Try HP!!!

The camp cafeteria has a great selection of food to chose from at every meal but occasionally someone has to douse their entrée in some type of sauce.  In this case it was HP sauce and most likely gotten through the Canadian connection from the parent company or the Indian connection with our cooks.

 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HP_Sauce

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Bird's Eye View

Got invited to take an aerial tour of the area.  The photo shows the mine buildings as seen from a Russian Mi-8---the most widely produced helicopter in the world.  Room for an American football team inside!!
The mine keeps the helicopter on the site in case of an emergency and, if needed, to help remote villages in the area with occasional supply runs.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mil_Mi-8

Bird in B&W

I've been hearing a bird song as I walked outside to and from the offices the past few days. Never have seen the bird that I knew was out in the snow. This morning he/she flew up and landed on a snow bank less than 10 feet away just to get my attention and probably just to watch me scramble for my camera.

Going Away Present

Giving chocolate as a gift is a big cultural thing here. Most of the treats are home grown but some American treats are coveted as well. An older Russian miner working on improving different concrete recipes for shotcrete was leaving his rotation on the mine site and dropped off a couple of Mars bars for us CI types.

Expensive Bricks

Worth at least $250k once processed, these ingots of electrum (a mix of silver and gold known to hard core D&D players of old) are still slightly warm to the touch. Most gold is tied up with silver in some fashion and in this case the mix is about 40:1 causing the ingots to appear silver.

Mining is a Close Knit Group

Noting a communication board in the Exploration area I noticed a nearly universal sign of mining the world over. The overloaded and stubborn mule :)

Regenerative Ice

With the days popping above freezing in the sun, areas once covered with a layer of ice and snow are melting away for a few hours each day. The rest of the day is spent below freezing and the ice begins to form again for the next day as seen below.

 

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Change of Seasons

It is getting slowly warmer (still below freezing for the highs) and staying lighter longer during my stay. It is fairly bright at 4am, no sun yet though, and the evenings are in twilight until past 9pm.

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A CAT of a different breed

Low slung for the special purpose of going underground, this truck style is very different than the surface fleet I have gotten use to being around over the past few years.  From the numerous scrapes and bumps, it is obvious these trucks are designed to take the abuse of rubbing against rock in tight spaces

Forgotten Exits

A set of double doors is getting unburied this week by the maintenance team.  All of the exit doors stay cleared year round but this set is mostly used for bringing large material (piping mostly) in and out of the corridor that connects the camp, mill and offices.  The blocks appear to be heavy ice but they are very light---think foam blocks and you won't be far off.  The ice is an accumulation from months of very light, wind blown snow.

Hydroponics-R-Us

The team at the mine is constantly trying new things which is good for what I do for a living :) Hydroponics has been discussed not only because of the expense of flying vegetables to the mine but the "freshness" factor as well. A hydroponic pilot project in a shipping container is beginning to take shape with the lighting still to be installed. The maintenance lead is proudly explaining the system as it has progressed so far and some of the next steps in the process. Tomatoes, peppers and lettuce have been discussed as potential first crops----looks like its salsa time!

Russian Sun Dial

My friend Igor soaking up some mid day rays.....got to keep that vitamin D up!

Sunset over the camp

The sun sets over the mining camp on a brisk Spring evening above the Arctic Circle. Obviously it is still cold---typically -20C to -25C.

Easy On and Off

Getting on and off this turboprop is a piece of cake. Luggage can be an issue coming out of one of the front doors though. Weather here is still a bit on the cold side -20C but the skies are much sunnier and the days longer.

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Magadan Airport

I've blogged before about the Magadan airport. The facility is a converted Soviet air force base originally built for jet interceptors. The main atrium is a tribute to the 50's and 60's euro-styling in vogue at the time it was built---a style that is still popular still in some areas I have visited. Modern convenience shops have found places to set up business in the public areas, some areas have had a facelift but the basic architecture remains.

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No Photos Posting :(

Brett from blogger Google Employee The Blogger Team 4/8/11

Alright, sounds like we didn't resolve the underlying issue for everyone. We're taking another dive into the issue and will report back as soon as we have another update. 

Thanks for your patience in the meantime!

Let me grab the house key....

Ever wonder where those funny shaped "magical" keys we all see in the movies come from? One source would be Magadan, Russia where I'll be heading tonight from Moscow..... A locksmith is really a locksmith in Siberia :)

Watch Out World

Here comes a fledgling Skyhawk!!!!!

Almost there...

Still in the process of molting into his bright summer colors to impress the ladies, a male Amrican Goldfinch throws a few seeds back at the feeder.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Goldfinch

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A Pair of Brown-headed Cowbirds

Infrequent visitors to the feeder, this pair is up to no good. I'm sure they are just hanging out to follow the other songbirds around to their nests, lay a few eggs and then out of the woods back to the fields.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brown-headed_Cowbird

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Another Sign of Spring

All of the trees are coming to life, just some do it a little better than others :)

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Chilean Lube Team Likes to Celebrate!

The fixed plant lubrication guys seemed to be a happy bunch. All smiles, showing off their PM schedules and very proud of the work that they did to keep the crushing system running day in and out. I noticed they had their Christmas decorations up and asked about not having any snow in December. They told me that it would feel strange to have snow during Christmas!

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Chileans are very cool people :)

Anyone can see that the Chileans have it going on!!

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Tulips say its Spring!

One of the tulips opened up today----so it got it's picture taken of course :)

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Last few days of an era...

With the AM of the BAM crew getting their licenses soon, it is with mixed emotions as I await the after school bell. Soon I'll just sit at home (and count the minutes) until they appear in the driveway!!

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Friday Night Flight

Tonight's ride to the Big D......

Room with a View

The residents of Copiapo begin their Friday. The climate here is subtropical with most of the vegetation recognizable by yours truly from his native Florida.

A Dim View of the Crux

Need a few more exposure settings but I did manage to digitally tweak one photo to show a few stars. The two bright lower stars are Alpha Centari and Beta Centari----those stars in which all those B grade sci-fi movies claimed were the homes of invading aliens. The four brighter stars above those two and near the top are part of the Southern Cross or "Crux". The long vertical axis of the cross runs left to right. The drawing below shows the method to finding the direction south similar to the Big Dipper aiding in finding the North Star (Polaris)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crux

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A Wee Bit of Moon

Disappearing just after sunrise, a ghostly Moon pales in the clear blue skies. The terrain is fair typical of the terrain in this area. The mountains are very worn but still with a high elevation. Vegetation grows all the way to the tops on the mountains with lush marshy grasses in the valleys where indigenous farmers raise llamas, goats, sheep and horses .

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Getting use to taking the stairs

Like quite a few airports I've arrived to over the past few months, Copiapo Airport is not an exceptionally large facility. We were actually the only plane there at the time we landed. The plane was an very new Airbus 319, the airport itself is clean and well marked, but again ADA regulations obviously do not apply when boarding and unboarding.

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Canopies of Grapes

Grapes make up the largest agriculture crop in Copiapo, Chile. The photo shows the grape vines being grown horizontally in vast canopies as to the more traditional vertical rows. The grapes however are not typically used for eating "off the vine" or for making the famous Chilean wines but for raisins. The grapes are harvested, sun dried and then processed by packing companies into the forms we have come to know today.

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Made it to Top!!!!

After a 4 hour winding, but very scenic, ride through the dry side of the Andes we arrived at the mine. Situated at 4500 meters and having clear skies nearly every night, I'm looking forward to seeing the Southern Cross star formation tonight.