Underground operations at a mine are rarely seen by those who invest in mining or explorations companies, and few understand the complexities of building an underground mine.

It starts with Exploration Drilling, finding what may be “economically recoverable mineralization”. These drill holes vary from 100 feet or so up to 1,000 feet and more.

Then when potentially economic mineralization is found, comes drilling to enable understanding the structure of the deposit and how the mineralized zones lie, so mining can be planned. These holes can be both from both surface and underground.

They also assist in where the drifts to reach the mineralization is, and how much bolting and screeing (see images below) is needed to ensure safe mining practices can be conducted.

After that comes definition drilling. Once we are into the mineralization, and establish the mining “working faces” that also have to be bolted and screened for safety, we need to drill ahead to make sure we will stay in the mineralization, and the ensure grades necessary for economic mining are maintained. These holes are closer together and many times are of shorter length.

As a Mine is a depleting asset, more Exploration drilling is often conducted to extend “Mine Life” This may be done along with the Mining, but in Bayhorse’ case, even with the recent discovery of gold mineralization, will probably not be conducted for many months.

Samples of videos and images of Bayhorse underground operations can be seen here, and on the Mine Videos pages