Underground

Yesterday I visited Dr M's workplace to see what he has been up to. First we were taken on a tour of the visitor's area then we visited the part of the mine that they have been practicing blowing things up.

The visitor's area was extensive with info boards, equipment - and it was all within the mine! They even have a full lecture theatre (seats 80) plus entertaining area (available for external hire) carved out of the tunnels.  The visitors area is mainly for customers of atlas copco, as this is where they would come to see demonstrations of equipment, commission sold bits of mining gear and conduct training.
Swedish miner Per showed us around his domain, including a full demo of the drilling machine which drills the holes where the charges are to be placed.

We then went down to the work area of the mine where Dr M explained how they place the detonators. The work he is doing here is towards improving tunneling.

The mine in general is where they practice drilling holes, each wall looks like that face to the right with lots of little holes.