Saturday, June 09, 2007

Another Day In Paradise

Look, it's Tom! He's the man responsible for my being here north of 60! He's my good buddy who gave me the contact to start with Crone. You can check out his blog here. It's another easy day here in Raglan, no drills shutting down means no surveys to do. Today was pretty relaxed, about 2 or 3 degrees and no wind. A nice day. The geophysics we do here is pretty simple: we lay out a large wire loop that is a 600m square and when we run about 12 amps of current through it. This produces a large magnetic field that in turn produces current in any conductive bodies in the ground (such as sulphides, ore). Inside the loop there is a drill that has drilled down about 400-90om or more. We send probes down into the hole which can sense the magnetic field produced by the conductors in the ground. We have probes that measure in all three directions (x,y,z) so the company that has hired us can then model where the body is and what size it is. That's it, pretty simple, huh? Well, with all six drills still drilling, Ismail (my operator) and I were out laying a loop in preparation for a drill shutting down in a few days. So for now it's a waiting game until the drills all start shutting down, which will likely be all in the space of a few days meaning fast and furious work with little sleep. It can take between 10 and 20 hours or more per survey. But being busy passes the time a lot faster, and the countdown to Vegas will accelerate!

1 comment:

Heidi and Neil said...

Very cool update, I approve! Tom only has 2 days there with you then you are on your own for 2 weeks....withdrawl???? Tell him I said hi!