Old mine surface buildings visits

You will go into Lamaque’s mine history, learn how goes the underground work evolution, see the miners elevator cage, the container in charge of transporting the ore up to the surface and see the magnificent winch room, a highly strategic place on the site of an underground mine.

 

 

 

It is in the geologists old room that are now exposed some samples of gold veins, tools used by the prospectors of that time and also many historic photos.

 

 

 

 

 

 

This trivial building contains the most impressive mine’s machine: the winch. Moved by an electrical engine of 800 horsepower and equipped with two cables, the winch is connected to the miners elevator’s cage and to the container in charge of transporting the ore. So, it allows the miners, the material and the ore to move up and down as far as 3600 feets (1200 meters) underground. The machine’s operator, the « hoistman », could not allowed himself any error. It was also forbiden to talk to him while he was operating the winch. The winch room is the architectural building of first importance of the site.

 

 

 

 

 

 

This building plays an important role in the daily activities of a mining deposit’s exploitation. The laboratory is a mini-factory of ore processing. One of the main surface installations of la Cité de l’Or, it is where all the ore samples were processed for their gold content, which allowed to follow the work development under the ground and value the profitability of the underground works areas. The laboratory is also knowned as the « mine’s eyes ».

 

 

 

 

  

 

The headframes number 6 and 7 of Lamaque’s mine offer an uncommon image: there are one among the only one placed that close to each other. They represents an important visual sign for the mine. The headframe number 7 is the highest infrastructure of the site and it contains the miners cage elevator and the container which is used to bring the ore to the surface.