I would love to go down there
GM but they won't let anyone unless directley employed,,, slight typing error there BTW , i should have typed in 118 miles not 800
The mine has three lift shafts, one for personell and inbound ventilation, the second is for personell and equipment and also outward bound stale air and the last for salt in very big skips around 40 ton's in one go. everything that is down there has to be dis assembled up top and re built down below, the exception was the Ford transit crew bus which was stood on it's end to get it in the lift. The mine uses a JOY continious miner for 85% of salt extraction and 15% drill and blast the rest which is hauled to storage areas deep underground untill it's required up top, below is a picture of the beast that works down the hole
picture from the JOY mining equipment catalogue
The Winsford salt mine has hit the news more than once for this reason:-
Britain's only working salt mine is to be partly turned into a giant toxic waste tip to avert a predicted crisis later this year when most existing overground sites will be forced to close.
The 170 metres (550ft) deep mine, near Winsford in Cheshire, currently used to mine rock salt used on icy roads, has been given permission by the British deputy prime minister, John Prescott, to indefinitely store 2m tonnes of toxic waste over the next 20 years. It will include incinerator and heavy industry waste and asbestos, but no liquids.
The mine is a godsend to the government and industry, which urgently need new sites to dump waste, because of its size and geology. The cool, dry caverns and galleries stretch over five square miles along 118 miles of 25ft-high, 75ft-wide corridors - an area large enough in theory to take most of Britain's toxic waste for several generations.
Have a look at this web site which shows how important the mine workings are, there is warehousing, chemical storage areas as well as mining,
http://www.saltunion.com/
: I trust you
...So I was looking for a boat last week and I had the choice...The left big one or the right small fast one??
)
and no vast bulb fields. The soil is not "sandy"enough...
