Lucky Friday Mine - Craig Shiner

I hired on at the Lucky Friday Mine in Mullan, Idaho in mid July. Since that time I have been working on various projects ranging from helping the underground surveying team, to designing structural brackets, to preparing to work on the new tailings pond.
 
Day-to-day, I spend the morning (5:30 a.m.-12:00 p.m.) underground helping the surveying crew or conducting my own ventilation surveys and temperature measurements. In the afternoon, I work on numerous different projects assisting the ventilation team and  researching information to keep up to date in all areas of the mine.

The first month at the mine was a lot of learning my way around the large underground network of tunnels just so I could find my way to the next task!  Now that I am more familiar with all the areas underground, I am able to spend more time working on projects independently.

In the future, I will be working closely with the environmental manager on the construction and monitoring of the tailings pond. I will also be learning as much as possible about underground refrigeration and ventilation.
 
The Lucky Friday Mine has given me the opportunity I was looking for: to be able to spread out from typical civil engineering jobs and to be able to experience a wide range of possibilities.