It was late Tuesday night and another midnight shift where I work. The good part about it was that it was the last midnight shift of the stretch before I started my long weekend. So needless to say, I was in pretty good spirits. Our previous night was horrendous with many different things going wrong, so earlier on Tuesday, I really did not feel like coming to work for that night and contemplated even taking the night off. The weather wasn't the greatest outside and I could've always used that as an excuse. But as I was about to leave, the weather calmed down and I knew I shouldn't let one bad night at work deter me from coming the next night. So I forged ahead and made the 20 mile drive to work. When I got there, I knew I should've taken the night off after all.
My job as an assistant plant operator at the mine includes operating the concentrator when our regular crew operator is not there. That was the case Tuesday night so I had to fill-in that role. Our crew was already short one person and without me on the floor, that left us without two people on the floor. So we were pretty short handed and when you throw in us having to shut the entire plant down within short notice, well it basically means all hands on deck for the crew. People are placed in positions that they wouldn't normally be in and things get to be pretty hectic. That was the case when I entered the control room. The previous crew and control room operator began the process of shutting the plant down because a set of very important pumps that brings water into the plant had kicked out due to an unknown electrical problem. Without these pumps, we cannot run anything. A tank stores the water short-time, so it allows us to shut things down in a relatively controlled manner. Seeing that we could not re-start these pumps in a timely noticed, the crew on afternoon shift began the process of shutting things down. The operator on afternoon shift was already scheduled to stay two hours over for casual overtime, so he assisted me in getting the rest of the plant shut down. By the time all was said and done, we had everything down within two hours into our shift and not much time left to spare. It was an interesting experience; never being in that role before of shutting things down like that. Then began the process of draining a pair of very important lines for our tailings system outside. That is where things really got interesting.
Even though I was a control room operator that night, I was techically not supposed to go out on the floor and lend a hand to the rest of the crew. But seeing as the afternoon operator stayed on (and didn't leave until around 4:30 AM Wednesday morning), I headed out into the storm (actually, I was sent on this very important mission with another person on my crew by the shift foreman). I dressed up as warmly as I could with the appropriate gear, gathered up some equipment to bring outside, and headed out with my partner in a company vehicle to one of the lines we needed to drain. Whenever we have to shut the plant down or we need to switch tailings lines, the line we are using needs to be drained. On the tailings line itself, there are six drains. We needed to open those up so the line could drain properly. Beyond this, there is another line with 11 drains that needed to be opened as part of the tailings booster line. This is located on our tailings basin which is an elevated area where the by-product of the mining process is pumped to. The condition atop of the dikes was just too bad. I didn't get out that far as some other members of my crew did, but from what they described, it was absolutely hellish. Blizzard conditions, blinding snow, winds in excess of 50 miles per hour greeted them. There was absolutely no way that line could be drained, so it was determined that we focus our sights on draining the other line; definitely the more critical line of the plant.
A total of five of us met at drain number three, where we brought along various torches, rose buds, and other heating utensils to try and thaw open valves and drains that were froze shut. Earlier that day, temperatures were in the middle to upper 30's and even some light rain fell. A cold front moved past earlier in the evening dropping temperatures fast. So it was easy to see why everything froze up the way it did. But we were on a fast track to try and drain the line because we didn't want the line to freeze, either. A few of the drains were stubborn and wouldn't unleash their material, but eventually we got them all opened up. But it certainly wasn't easy. The booster line was a lost cause because the conditions were very much life threatening. At least we were able to get the main tailings line opened up, however. Otherwise that really could've been a catastrophe.
I know everyone on my crew was hoping for an easy and quiet last shift before long weekend but it never materialized. And despite the craziness of the entire night, we accomplished pretty much all that we could do. We were satisfied with our job, even though the plant was never able to start back up again. I am happy to report that the mine is back up and running today after a day in a half break. Those kinds of shut-downs usually do not last that long unless they're because of economic reasons, etc. But as least things are relatively back to normal than they were late Tuesday night/Wednesday morning.
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