Questions: 1. why aren't they using either robotic or in situ leeching? (These are typically the way uranium is mined now - most of it being ISL). Unless the *goal* is to kill the workers, I'd assume that they'd be using the same techniques that are currently used in uranium mines
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My premise is a planet where the government (a dictatorship) sends prisoners sentenced to death. Think gulags; the main goal is to exploit prisoners that would soon be dead anyway.
I can certainly come up with something else than uranium, something that needs real people to be mined, but right now I'm wondering why such kind of mines still exist then? I mean, I read about ISL, but I thought it was one of the options, not the default one. Is coal mining, for example, less dangerous for people? And why? As I understand it, uranium ore doesn't emit so much radiations, the real danger is in the dust particles. Is that right?
As for the ventilation system, I saw that (some) are dug into the ground. If the rock has cracks, gases can get into the system? Forgive me if my questions sound dumb; I read a lot, but there are still so many things I'm trying to figure out :/
Well, for coal, getting it all wet would kind of defeat the purpose. ;) I believe the danger for uranium is a combination of dust particles and escaping radon gas. (I'm not super familiar with uranium mining, though, aside from knowing that it uses ISL.) I believe ISL is used in part to eliminate that, possibly in part because it works. (I know ISL does not work for coal. There are likely other substances where it doesn't work at all or is highly inefficient. Gold, for instance, often is found in narrow veins, so you'd have to use a lot of leechant to get at a tiny, tiny amount of gold if you tried ISL, while if you drag the gold to the surface, you can only leech the rock that actually has gold in it.) I'll also admit that, from a "technology will probably advance in the future" perspective, I'm not entirely sure why all mining would not be done by semi-autonomous robots, although you could probably play with robots being too expensive, not quite working, whatever
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Ahhh, got it! I thought the ventilation system used different, dedicated shafts. When I looked for pictures online, I came over this and this, for example, so I imagined these huge shafts that would just be used to pump fresh air in and exhausts out. The big fans I saw oh the outside and some maps I checked somehow reinforced that idea. Ops :/ Thank you for clarifying that.
I'm going to rework some part of the plot, but I agree that a roof collapse might be my best bet. It's not su much about drama, rather than setting up a good scenario for later purposes. This is a toes dip, I have enough room to make changes :DI
They do tend to have tubes that run through the mines in some places so that the intake and outtake air don't mix. (There are also gates, etc.) But the air does use the same shafts that are used for people. ;)
A roof collapse is probably the most expected at least from a modern perspective. (Of course, who knows what will happen in the future?)
It sounds like coal mining might make some sense for the requirements you want for your story. There are various kinds of nasty gases that can be present in coal mines. In terms of long-term health effects, there's coalworker's pneumoconiosis (black lung disease). Coal mining is less dangerous than it used to be, but disasters still happen; the Pike River Mine disaster in 2010 being an example. At Pike River, there was a methane explosion that ruptured the gas drainage line and damaged the ventilation fans, causing the ventilation system to shut down. Methane built up in the mine, and several more explosions occurred over the next few days. The Royal Commission Report on the disaster has some details on the mine safety systems and how they failed. The biggest question, from my perspective, is what a technologically advanced civilisation with space travel and stuff would need coal for.
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I can certainly come up with something else than uranium, something that needs real people to be mined, but right now I'm wondering why such kind of mines still exist then? I mean, I read about ISL, but I thought it was one of the options, not the default one. Is coal mining, for example, less dangerous for people? And why? As I understand it, uranium ore doesn't emit so much radiations, the real danger is in the dust particles. Is that right?
As for the ventilation system, I saw that (some) are dug into the ground. If the rock has cracks, gases can get into the system? Forgive me if my questions sound dumb; I read a lot, but there are still so many things I'm trying to figure out :/
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I'm going to rework some part of the plot, but I agree that a roof collapse might be my best bet. It's not su much about drama, rather than setting up a good scenario for later purposes. This is a toes dip, I have enough room to make changes :DI
Reply
A roof collapse is probably the most expected at least from a modern perspective. (Of course, who knows what will happen in the future?)
Reply
Coal mining is less dangerous than it used to be, but disasters still happen; the Pike River Mine disaster in 2010 being an example. At Pike River, there was a methane explosion that ruptured the gas drainage line and damaged the ventilation fans, causing the ventilation system to shut down. Methane built up in the mine, and several more explosions occurred over the next few days. The Royal Commission Report on the disaster has some details on the mine safety systems and how they failed.
The biggest question, from my perspective, is what a technologically advanced civilisation with space travel and stuff would need coal for.
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