WEBVTT Kind: captions; Language: en 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:27.001 [...] 00:01:10.001 --> 00:01:17.000 A pathless wilderness, wild, rugged. That was the Black Hills of South 00:01:17.000 --> 00:01:19.001 Dakota in the early 1870s. 00:01:20.000 --> 00:01:26.000 A hardy frontier far from the paths of civilization where fortune beckoned with a 00:01:26.000 --> 00:01:32.000 glittering smile and life hung on the quickness of a trigger finger. There was 00:01:32.000 --> 00:01:38.000 gold in them thar hills, gold at Spring Creek, gold at Crook City, gold at 00:01:38.000 --> 00:01:42.001 Central City, gold on the mountains, in the rivers, and in the dark depths far 00:01:42.001 --> 00:01:48.000 below the surface of the earth. For centuries uncounted, men have sought, fought, 00:01:48.000 --> 00:01:52.000 and died for gold as they did in the Black Hills when the west was young. 00:01:53.001 --> 00:01:59.001 Brave men came from the north, the east, the south, the west. By the tens, the 00:01:59.001 --> 00:02:04.001 hundreds, the thousands. They tunneled the mountainside. They combed the gulches. 00:02:04.001 --> 00:02:10.001 They strained the rivers, creeks, and streams in their wild quest for gold. But 00:02:10.001 --> 00:02:15.000 the romantic day of the Placer minor was short live. No more could gold be washed 00:02:15.000 --> 00:02:19.001 from the coarse gravel of the creek beds. The Plasters were worked out. The 00:02:19.001 --> 00:02:24.000 bewhiskered pioneer with pick, shovel, and gold pan had served his day. 00:02:26.001 --> 00:02:31.001 And that day he served well, for he set the stage for a greater era and new 00:02:31.001 --> 00:02:38.000 industry destined to take its place with agriculture in South Dakota. Among the 00:02:38.000 --> 00:02:43.000 men who sought for gold in those daring days was Moses Manuel. He was interested 00:02:43.000 --> 00:02:49.000 in the scientific mining of hard rock formation, getting gold out of quartz ore 00:02:49.000 --> 00:02:51.001 so hard it could not be chipped by a miner's pick. 00:02:54.000 --> 00:03:00.001 Manuel and his party prospected the winter of 1875 without success. And then 00:03:00.001 --> 00:03:07.000 on April 9th, 1876, they discovered a ledge, an outcropping of ore that 00:03:07.000 --> 00:03:12.000 then was termed a lead. They sank their discovery shaft in the side of a draw, 00:03:12.000 --> 00:03:17.001 and they called it home stake lead. And the mining camp which leaped to life took 00:03:17.001 --> 00:03:23.000 the name of lead city. The original site of the home stake mine has disappeared, 00:03:23.001 --> 00:03:29.000 and in its place has risen a thriving industry geared to modern progress. Today, 00:03:29.001 --> 00:03:36.000 lead is still a mining camp, but a mining camp with 20th century trimmings. The 00:03:36.000 --> 00:03:41.001 home stake mine is still there, for lead is home stake and home stake is lead. 00:03:42.000 --> 00:03:46.001 But mining in the glamorous days of yore is a far cry from the complicated and 00:03:46.001 --> 00:03:52.001 scientific methods in use today. It takes more than a pick and shovel to get gold 00:03:52.001 --> 00:03:57.000 ore out of the ground now, and more than a gold pan to get the gold out of the 00:03:57.000 --> 00:04:03.001 ore. Would you like to mine for gold? Today, gold mining means raw materials, men 00:04:03.001 --> 00:04:08.001 and construction, combined with the science of chemistry and the wonders of 00:04:08.001 --> 00:04:14.001 modern engineering, all of which are necessary to make home stake ore pay. New 00:04:14.001 --> 00:04:19.001 construction which will take two years at a cost of about three million dollars 00:04:19.001 --> 00:04:26.000 to complete. This complex steel structure, the head frame, rises from a man 00:04:26.000 --> 00:04:33.000 -made mountaintop plateau to reach nearly 150 feet skyward. In this massive 00:04:33.000 --> 00:04:40.000 building, made with more than 800,000 bricks, steel and concrete, giant equipment 00:04:40.000 --> 00:04:44.001 will control the hoisting and lowering of cages which carry men and materials. 00:04:46.000 --> 00:04:51.001 This model of the Yates shaft shows what has to be done. The great construction 00:04:51.001 --> 00:04:57.000 work underground blasted out of solid rock, but it isn't done from the top down. 00:04:57.001 --> 00:05:03.000 The shafts are cut from the bottom up, tunnels or drifts, as the miners call 00:05:03.000 --> 00:05:07.001 them, are blasted from the solid rock to connect old workings with the exact 00:05:07.001 --> 00:05:14.000 location of the new shaft. Then the latter moves upward in many separate segments 00:05:14.000 --> 00:05:20.000 or links which one by one are merged into a single vertical opening. Precision 00:05:20.000 --> 00:05:25.001 engineering makes sure the drifts meet the new shaft at the right places, but 00:05:25.001 --> 00:05:30.001 it's not as easy as that. Opening up a level and placing it in proper condition 00:05:30.001 --> 00:05:36.000 for mining requires many months of work, drilling, blasting, ditching, hauling 00:05:36.000 --> 00:05:42.001 waste rock. More than three and one half million feet of timber, or enough to 00:05:42.001 --> 00:05:48.001 build more than 200 five-room houses, go into the shaft. This drift 00:05:48.001 --> 00:05:50.001 leads to one of the ore bodies. 00:05:52.000 --> 00:05:56.001 Two years to finish the job, hundreds of men at work under the ground, on the 00:05:56.001 --> 00:06:02.000 surface, high in the air. Two years of work through the toughest kind of rock, 00:06:02.001 --> 00:06:08.000 millions of feet of timber, hundreds of tons of concrete and steel, thousands 00:06:08.000 --> 00:06:14.001 upon hundreds of thousands of dollars for equipment, before one single ton of ore 00:06:14.001 --> 00:06:20.000 can be taken out. That's what gold mining is today. Where is that old time pick 00:06:20.000 --> 00:06:26.000 and shovel now? The new Yates plant, when complete, will look like this several 00:06:26.000 --> 00:06:31.000 million dollar Ross plant, built in 1934 with a shaft where operations are now 00:06:31.000 --> 00:06:33.000 being conducted on many levels. 00:06:34.001 --> 00:06:38.001 The levels are spaced 100 feet apart down to 1100 feet, 00:06:42.000 --> 00:06:49.000 then 150 feet apart to the bottom of 00:06:49.000 --> 00:06:53.001 the mine. Now we're after gold. Down we go. 00:06:56.001 --> 00:07:01.000 Eight one. Eight one. That's the signal we heard a moment ago. 00:07:01.001 --> 00:07:06.001 The marvels of shortwave radio used for safety in the mining of gold ore. 00:07:10.000 --> 00:07:16.001 These great and powerful drums, each holding more than a mile of stout steel 00:07:16.001 --> 00:07:22.000 hoisting cable in one layer, wind and unwind rapidly as the cages speed up and 00:07:22.000 --> 00:07:29.000 down the shaft, carrying their cargo to a safe haven. Vertical transportation 00:07:29.000 --> 00:07:35.000 lowering human cargo over 4,000 feet into the earth, four times as deep as the 00:07:35.000 --> 00:07:39.001 height of the Empire State Building. Flashes of light are levels. 00:07:41.001 --> 00:07:46.001 An indicating arm is geared with micrometer fineness and tells the operator 00:07:46.001 --> 00:07:53.000 exactly where the cage is at all times. 3650 feet, 00:07:54.000 --> 00:08:00.001 3800 feet, 3950 feet, 4100 feet below the surface at a 00:08:00.001 --> 00:08:06.000 speed more than three times as fast as a modern elevator in perfect safety. 00:08:08.000 --> 00:08:13.000 Over 2,000 men work for home stake. The miners work in two shifts which are 00:08:13.000 --> 00:08:19.001 rotated, changes in hours for every man. At home stake, safety 00:08:19.001 --> 00:08:21.001 is a first consideration. 00:08:22.001 --> 00:08:27.000 Helmets of light material tougher than steel, work lamps with a battery to keep 00:08:27.000 --> 00:08:34.000 them lighted for eight hours, steel-toed shoes with spiked soles for safety. But 00:08:34.000 --> 00:08:39.000 above all, it is the thorough understanding of their job and an unfailing 00:08:39.000 --> 00:08:45.000 observance of safety practices on the part of the home stake record to its 00:08:45.000 --> 00:08:51.001 remarkably low accident rate. Prospecting, shaft sinking, 00:08:52.000 --> 00:08:58.001 drifting, raising, cross-cutting, diamond drilling, all preliminary to 00:08:58.001 --> 00:09:00.000 actual mining of the ore. 00:09:01.000 --> 00:09:07.000 Here's the air-driven diamond drill outlining the gold-bearing rock. Gold ore is 00:09:07.000 --> 00:09:12.001 mined by two methods, the shrinkage-stoke method without timber and the square 00:09:12.001 --> 00:09:14.000 set method with timber. 00:09:15.001 --> 00:09:19.000 These miners are climbing into a stoke from which the ore is being 00:09:19.000 --> 00:09:21.000 removed by the shrinkage method. 00:09:22.001 --> 00:09:27.000 Shrinkage-stoke mining consists of breaking ore away from solid rock. As the roof 00:09:27.000 --> 00:09:31.001 of the opening or stoke becomes higher, the miners use the broken ore 00:09:31.001 --> 00:09:33.000 as a platform on which to work. 00:09:34.000 --> 00:09:39.001 Loose rock hanging overhead is pried off with long steel bars. Miners 00:09:39.001 --> 00:09:41.000 call this barring down. 00:09:42.001 --> 00:09:47.000 Pneumatic drills bite deep into the tough hard ore to make holes for blasting. 00:09:48.001 --> 00:09:54.000 Ten feet into solid rock, every day 3,000 steel drills go into the mine. 00:09:54.001 --> 00:09:58.001 Every day 3,000 steel bits are taken out for sharpening. 00:10:00.000 --> 00:10:05.001 Priing down loose rock, drilling holes deep into the ore, and loading the holes 00:10:05.001 --> 00:10:11.001 for blasting require an eight-hour working cycle. Three million sticks of 00:10:11.001 --> 00:10:17.000 dynamite every year, one million blasting caps to set off a million blasts for 00:10:17.000 --> 00:10:21.001 nearly a million and a half tons of ore mined annually in the home stake mine. 00:10:22.001 --> 00:10:27.001 The blasting is done at the end of the day. Outgo the tools and outgo the men to 00:10:27.001 --> 00:10:33.000 a safe place far from the blast. They light the fuses, the smoke curls up, it's 00:10:33.000 --> 00:10:39.001 all over until another shift repeats the cycle. When the shrinkage-stoke is mined 00:10:39.001 --> 00:10:44.001 up to a height of 125 feet, the chamber is filled with broken ore, 00:10:46.001 --> 00:10:50.000 which must be drawn through shoots into one-ton cars. 00:10:51.001 --> 00:10:56.001 Strong timber planking and steel guards protect the loaders from flying ore. 00:10:57.001 --> 00:11:02.001 One ton of ore to a car, 20 cars to a train, 20 tons of solid ore and not 00:11:02.001 --> 00:11:04.001 a flake of gold in sight. 00:11:05.001 --> 00:11:10.001 Locomotive is powered by electricity, locomotive is powered by compressed air, 00:11:11.000 --> 00:11:16.000 all run on tracks from all points underground, run regularly on a complete 00:11:16.000 --> 00:11:20.000 railway system, 80 miles of steel track to carry equipment, 00:11:20.001 --> 00:11:22.000 materials, and gold ore. 00:11:25.000 --> 00:11:29.001 Ore mined by the square set method consists of timbering to take out the ore 00:11:29.001 --> 00:11:33.001 which was left in place to support the roof and side walls during shrinkage-stoke 00:11:33.001 --> 00:11:39.000 mining. These men are working under the pillar you saw in the picture a moment 00:11:39.000 --> 00:11:45.001 ago. The process is the same here as in the shrinkage-stoke method. Drill, blast, 00:11:45.001 --> 00:11:50.001 and remove the ore. Water runs through a rifle-drilled hole in the center of the 00:11:50.001 --> 00:11:56.000 drill steel. The water does three jobs, cools, lubricates, and prevents dust. 00:11:58.000 --> 00:12:03.000 Down goes the ore to the loading level below, and what punishment that timber 00:12:03.000 --> 00:12:15.000 takes. It has to be done. The model shows you what the mine actually looks like, 00:12:15.001 --> 00:12:22.000 a massive underground structure of sturdy timber. The higher up the miners drill 00:12:22.000 --> 00:12:25.000 and blast away, the farther down the ore falls. 00:12:25.001 --> 00:12:32.000 The miners go up and the ore comes down. In this subterranean cavern are supplies 00:12:32.000 --> 00:12:37.001 ready for use, timber for extending the square set structure, tools, drills, and 00:12:37.001 --> 00:12:44.001 extra equipment standing by on the job for the time it is needed. Air 00:12:44.001 --> 00:12:51.001 for power and air for help. Every minute of every day 500,000 cubic feet of 00:12:51.001 --> 00:12:58.000 fresh air go into the mine and 500,000 cubic feet come out. Clean, fresh air 00:12:58.000 --> 00:13:03.001 every minute of the day for every man underground. These men are working in a 00:13:03.001 --> 00:13:08.001 heading, a dead end away from the main drifts and cross cuts of the mine, but 00:13:08.001 --> 00:13:13.000 they get plenty of clean air through canvas or galvanized iron ventilating pipes. 00:13:15.000 --> 00:13:20.000 4,000 feet underground, but still there is air for the miners and air for power. 00:13:20.001 --> 00:13:27.001 But why air for power? To drive 500 air drills, 38 air locomotives, small 00:13:27.001 --> 00:13:31.001 ventilating fans, and other equipment. Where does it all come 00:13:31.001 --> 00:13:34.000 from? Why it comes from here. 00:13:34.000 --> 00:13:38.001 These great compressors running day and night furnish high pressure 00:13:38.001 --> 00:13:40.000 air for many machines. 00:13:41.001 --> 00:13:46.001 Water for spraying to keep down the dust, water from sand used in filling worked 00:13:46.001 --> 00:13:52.001 out shrinkage stokes, water from the earth, water for the drills, 600 gallons of 00:13:52.001 --> 00:13:59.000 water pumped from the mine each minute or enough for a city of 20,000 people. And 00:13:59.000 --> 00:14:01.000 it all has to go someplace. 00:14:04.001 --> 00:14:10.001 But where's the gold? Let's look for it. That's funny, there's none to be seen. 00:14:11.000 --> 00:14:16.000 It's there all right, but in minute quantities. Four tenths of an 00:14:16.000 --> 00:14:17.001 ounce to a ton of rock. 00:14:19.000 --> 00:14:24.001 The ore is hoisted at night. This skip is filled with eight tons of ore and there 00:14:24.001 --> 00:14:30.000 goes. 25,000 pounds of ore and steel at 2 00:14:30.000 --> 00:14:31.001 ,500 feet per minute. 00:14:33.000 --> 00:14:37.000 All of the new timber used in the mine is lowered through shafts. 00:14:37.000 --> 00:14:40.000 The old and broken timber is hoisted to the surface. 00:14:41.001 --> 00:14:46.000 More than a thousand miners are lowered and hoisted through the shafts every day. 00:14:48.000 --> 00:14:52.001 This heated tunnel leads directly from the shaft to a modern change house. 00:14:53.000 --> 00:14:57.000 The miners pass from the shaft to this room without going outside. 00:14:58.001 --> 00:15:03.000 Here modern facilities guard against sudden changes in temperature, safety 00:15:03.000 --> 00:15:06.000 precautions on the surface as well as underground. 00:15:08.000 --> 00:15:12.000 Here's the gold ore again and what a beating is in store for that rock. 00:15:13.000 --> 00:15:17.000 The ore is on its way now to the gyratory crusher, the first 00:15:17.000 --> 00:15:18.001 of a series of crushing machines. 00:15:19.001 --> 00:15:25.000 No one machine can do the job, so the Simon's crusher now breaks the rocks down 00:15:25.000 --> 00:15:27.001 to about two inch size like this. 00:15:28.001 --> 00:15:31.001 It takes power and plenty of it. 00:15:32.001 --> 00:15:37.000 Two inch pebbles from chunks of solid rock, but it's only the beginning. 00:15:38.001 --> 00:15:45.000 From the crusher to the stamp mill, 180 stamps, each with a falling weight of 1 00:15:45.000 --> 00:15:52.000 ,550 pounds. 300,000 tons of water are used every 00:15:52.000 --> 00:15:56.000 24 hours in the process to reduce the ore to a fineness 00:15:56.000 --> 00:15:58.000 sufficient for the removal of the gold.