Underground mining methods:

There are several ways to work underground in Mintabie, the main methods being:

• Blower - a truck mounted vacuum machine which sucks the waste material out of the ground through pipes.

• Hoist - a winch and cable device that lifts buckets of overburden out of the claim.

• Bobcat - a skid steer loader (diesel) that the operator drives into a tunnel from the side of an open cut, using the bucket to pick up and remove debris. Bobcats must be fitted with a catalytic converter to reduce toxic emissions.

• Wheel barrow and other manual methods - The way most miners used to work. The cheapest and most labour intensive method of mining.

All underground mining methods used in Mintabie require the miner to drill auger holes in the mining face of the drive, load them with explosives and blast before removing the blasted waste.

Permits for purchasing, mixing, transporting and using explosives are available through the local PIRSA office.

Open cut mining methods:

In Mintabie, the main machines used for open cut mining are:

• Bulldozers - which rip the sandstone and push overburden out of the work area.

• Scrapers - which do not dig in their own right, but are used as a more efficient method of removing overburden from the floor of cuts, or moving sand and mullock heaps covering the sandstone on a claim.

• Excavators - trench or pit digging machines, which are not used much in Mintabie because of the hardness of the sandstone and cap-rock.