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Hard rock mining requires three steps: drilling and blasting the rock so that it can be physically removed, mucking (loading) the rock in some form of container, and hauling and hoisting the rock to the smelter. Even with later developments in technology and increased mechanization, this basic procedure remains the same.
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Step 1: Drilling and Blasting
In the earliest days of hard rock gold mining, miners made holes for blasting in the walls and ceiling of mine shafts using a steel rod drill and sledgehammer. Packing the holes with gun powder, they attached long fuses before igniting the explosives from a safe distance. In 1855, compressed air hammer drills were invented and, in the 1860s, two new, more efficient types of dynamite were developed.
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Step 2: Mucking
After rock was blasted from the mine face, teams of miners picked up the loose rubble, broke up oversize pieces and shovelled them into the ore car. The car was pushed and emptied by hand. In 1905 a self-dumping ore car was invented which allowed the muck to be emptied down a chute into a larger ore car. Mechanical scrapers and mucking machines were introduced in the 1930s.
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