triple compartment concrete lined no 2 shaft

chief
of the achl ef consolidated mine at eureka utah
BY BROTHERS
the first mine in utah to try out the ad- the shaft walls was another important con- and the third for the accommodation of a
vantages of the concrete shaft is the chief sideration incidentally the concrete is very chippy cage and the ladder ways and pip-
consolidated at eureka in the gintic tintic dist- discouraging to rats ing wiring etc it is the intention to sink
rict where it was decided to introduce the work was started in july 1918 at the to a depth of 2000 feet the first 1450 feet
innovation when the company planned its same time that the sinking operations were having been completed at the time of this
large three compartment operating shaft writing
begun the sinking of the shaft is being
known as no 2 and started two years ago
carried on by walter fitch jr contractor the drawing showing the section through
the idea is not new or experimental be- and the concrete work is being put in by thee arrangement of the three
the shaft gives th
cause several mines in the duluth minnes-
ota district and elsewhere have been conc-
az
reted some of the installations dating back
to 1903
the reasons for concreting this
chief consolidated shaft were
first to insure perfect alignment the
17

1aa

most remarkable T
fact that has been establi- I
1

shed by the chief consolidated shaft is the

city
ability of a thin concrete
lining to exclude
the air from 4
a porphyry wall and absolutely
stop the pw
swelling which gives rise to such
great difficulties
in all shafts through p or
pry
phyra in some of
the more difficult parts
of the
shaft the forces from the swelling
have ve broken
inch timbers like matches 1I
atter
after these same parts
hasas been no
were concreted there ai
further evidence of extreme
wees acting
falces
this phenomenon is so marke-
d that the swelling apparently ceases as
soon as
the concrete is poured in its plas
ticc state
some of the other shafts in this
district
strict have given
so much trouble with
aM arising from this same tendency 4
to
swellell that enough
during
u ng
new timber is put in
a five year period to pay for
the concor
almost X
ipie concreting of
complete
not F Y
nuon thee
bention
the shaft to
cost of delays in operation
secondd safety irv
eions on the absence of XI
walls
alls wm
will permit the hoisting of
alakkinds
all ands of loads
14 on without danger of catch
shaft lining
of ile
01 t 6 the erect
perfect
g
fety ot
shaftt walls also contributes to the
of the mine
looking do donn center compartment of chief consolidated shaft
down
I
compartments the photograph taken in
brothers contractors of salt
1

third permanent very good

construction was de- the the center compartment gives a
ed
the decaycay of wood linings is both lake city the operation
cooperation
co between
appearance of the shaft after
em concrete men has idea of the
S e and dangerous
serous shaft contractors and the concreting
bourth pire
fire protection was a large fac been excellent from the start
tor
u determining
the type of lining description of shaft the scheme of concreting the outside
is inches thick with projections ex-
th
the6 control of water is 15 feet 9 inches by 4 feet 6 wall 7
blowing into
wafer flowing the shaft
is divided into tending to the rock wall at intervals depend-
t sneer inches on the inside and a gen
cityY
alt hoisting of ore ing on the nature of the ground As
and
contractors salt lake three compartments two for
25
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y

fig I1 divider frame deposit nearby with any loading facilities

4
it has therefore been found necessary to
bring in sand from salt lake city a di-
stance of ninety three miles the gravel is
II1
N
ss 1
s
v 1
S
of two kinds the coarser gravel is o-
is
f btained by screening the dolomite which
continually brought up from certain sections
yJ J j- of the chief consolidated workings the
old mill dump
finer material comes from the
equi-
4
VAI I1
7 Z
r 1
sass 1 at the may day
da mine which is about
the
1 i T valent to pea gravel the proportions of
VJ aggregates are selected to give an exceptio-
sent in
i nally dense concrete and test cubes
time to time
to the university of utah from
show crushing strengths of 22600 to old
lr i pounds per square inch when 288 days
ogden portland cement is used throughout
concreting
Conc retinO
i method of timbering and
about 65 feet
first a section of shaft timber
deep is sunk and timbered the
J- the tin
being carried on with the sinking ad
to best
fg
fig 2 typical form section bers are designed to work in OP
concreting
vantage with the subsequent
spacing of the
ot
eral rule about 15 to 20 per cent of the wall illustrations so that work can be hung from erat ions for instance the
orations the
by
Is carried right back to the rock in this man- above at the same time that the shaft Is timbers vertically is determined to
and this ill
ner the two inside division walls are made being sunk below if it so desired although this height of a divider frame for
fo
of reinforced concrete divider method livery
is very seldom resorted to now bolt depends onan how much room there is
weight
we
frames the strength of the various mem- inserts are placed in the divider frames ering the frame as well as on its
used
bers was determined by a comparison with wherever it is decided to hang pipes guides th etc the principal members
s trength
6 inches
the strength developed by standard timber- ladders etc in timbering are spaced 2 feet
g Is
Ck
back
ch ba lags
ing practice for similar wood lined shafts reinforcing all walls and divider frames on centers of sets two iinch by sit
af
six
the two inch back lagging and part of the are reinforced with plain medium steel bars placed vertically between sets shaft
sn forr
timbers are left in place and concreted in the walls have binchinch square bars spaced inch struts are placed across the concreted
conar
the divider frames are shown in 10 inch centers two bars out of every three the
temporary bracing before arrangement P
geme
fig
pig 1I the top and bottom members of being bent up over the support and the third vider frames are set this arran to be
to
borins
the frame have a section six inches square running straight through half inch round mits the dividers and the wall
last
thingg
and the side members tapered from to bars are also placed vertically at intervals plumbed up very accurately the pt
an
the object of the tapering is to facili- of approximately one foot the reinforcing before concreting which Is quite the
tate the stripping of the inside form when bars are tied together in mats or sections ant consideration on account of
casting the lower corners of the frame above ground and lowered in these units ground movements which always
have lugs to tie in with the shaft timbering the concrete concrete is mixed 16 or tendency to dislocate the timbers
as will be described later all dividers are approximately the sand was re- preparations for vate d
quired in carload lots and there was no sand shaft Is
cast with hanging rod holes as shown in the after sixty five feet of
 and timbered preparations are started for
concreting the first operation is to provide
a pump chamber below the concrete work
so as to be clear and free from all interfer-

ll
11 id
ence this is done by constructing a frame-
work of inch timbers to make a false
bottom for the shaft about ten feet above
the actual bottom concreting is carried on
above the and pumping below As
it is evident that the removal of the
will leave a great weight of concrete
suspended without direct support from be-
low it is necessary to pour the first ten feet
in height solid that is extending right
back to the rock walls pouring solid re-
quires at least four to five times as much
AA
concrete as pouring hollow low this is on
account of over breakage which is the dif-
ference between the amount of material
broken away in blasting and the theoretical-
ly correct straight lines of the shaft
the divider frames are lowered
t 3
b into place ahead of any of the reinforcing or

1I i framework it has been noted that there

are heavy lugs projecting from the lower
corners of the divider frames the lugs are
L wedged up tightly against the shaft timbers
and tha
that allows the temporary wood struts
crossing the shaft to be removed frames
i i
are placed for a section of shaft five feet
high or the height of two of the frames
s
Az
the cycle of operations starting at the set-
k ting of dividers reinforcing forms concret-
ing and back to the scaffolding for the next
t five feet of shaft usually represents the
k
j i work of one 8 hour shift the reinforcing
mats for a five foot section of shaft are next
va i lowered into place in the walls it requires
1 sixteen mats to reinforce the five feet
t there is a section of form for each mat
r of reinforcement figure 2 shows a typical
section of form it is made entirely of 2
fry inch lumber treated with de bloomed neutral
1 oil on the face side the triangular section
x I1
PA 7
A
1 3
in the corner is to facilitate stripping suf-
1
va 7 ficient forms are carried on hand to cover
eighty linear feet of shaft so that no strip-
ping is necessary until a complete sinking
concreted these
section usually 65 feet is concrete
form sections are used over and over again
s the forms are held in place by inch
v
struts across the shaft and concrete spacer
blocks with a 1 inch square section in the
wall spacee everything is wedged up tight
0 many form details have been worked out
Y which are very essential but cannot be
treated in this space forms are stacked in
a shed to protect them from sun and rain
method of handling concrete
As soon as the forms are placed to a
concrete is ready to pour
height of five feet tancrete
the mixing plant is similar to consists those fre-
quentlyly used in road work it of
an elevator pit taking sand and gravel from
cars and piles a bucket conveyor and
both capac-
a four compartment bin with a total
ity of ninety yards at the bottom of this
bin is a network of perforated pipe for
beating the aggregates
steam heating steam heat
beat
typical
rY longitudinal section of showing various stages of concreting
shaft
is used throughout the year because the heat aa
si gK
siak

accelerates the setting the temperature of

the shaft itself remains constant at all
times of the year the bins discharge
through hopper gates of the swinging arc
or
type into a measuring hopper and thence to
miser below the mixer discharges into
the mixer M xvi

a standard center swing ore bucket which

travels on a small car to the top of the shaft
a distance of about thirty feet the bucket
holds eleven cubic feet of concrete it is
alk V 7

k
comp anys
lowered and raised by the mining companas 4
hoist
various schemes for from the
J
bucket into the forms have been tried but
it is found most satisfactory and gives the at left Is picture of divider frame
at right one unit of reinforcing mat ready
densest concrete to dump the bucket on a to place
1
1
10 Z

C
2tj
as i ma hia kw

dpn IM 10 5 OLM 41

44

r
3 i J
ll
11 afa y

S
section through shaft showing three compartments
shoveling platform and shovel from
into the forms
how water is handled
the drainage of water from the shaft
walls is quite an important consideration in
connection with the concrete design the
water is led off above each solidly concreted
section through a 2 inch perforated drain
pipe which connects with a header running
down the shaft there should not be a free
access of air through the drain pipes to the
porphyry behind pumping stations are lo-
cated at intervals of about feet along
the shaft and all drainage from the pipes is
that sumps at the pumping stations
led into the bumps
some of the water is of excellent quality for
drinking and is pumped to the residences of
the mine officials
mr cecil fitch Is the general manager
and mr J fred johnson is the general mine
superintendent for the chief consolidated
all contracting work is done under their su-
per
pervision
vision
the cost of lining with concrete includ-
ing the timbering for this three compart
ment shaft runs from 70 to 90 per linear
foot of shaft depending on the character of
the ground