Shaft mining or shaft sinking refers to the method of excavating a vertical or near-vertical tunnel from the top down, where there is initially no access to the bottom. When the top of the excavation is the ground surface, it is referred to as a shaft or portal; when the top of the excavation is underground, it is called a winze.
Read more about Shaft Mining: Off-shaft Access, Surface Facilities, Shaft Lining, Shaft Compartments
Famous quotes containing the words shaft and/or mining:
“Lord, crack their teeth! Lord, crush these lions’ jaws!
So let them sink as water in the sand;
When deadly bow their aiming fury draws,
Shiver the shaft ere past the shooter’s hand.
So make them melt as the dishoused snail”
—Bible: Hebrew Psalm LVIII (Paraphrased by the Countess of Pembroke)
“Any relation to the land, the habit of tilling it, or mining it, or even hunting on it, generates the feeling of patriotism. He who keeps shop on it, or he who merely uses it as a support to his desk and ledger, or to his manufactory, values it less.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)