Mine over matter
Conor Devaney, left, and Norm Doxanakis prepare for the mile-long journey from “the cage” mine elevator to the Lucky Friday Mine 4-shaft hoist room area, which is located about a mile underground.
Tom Greene
Norm Doxanakis, left, and Conor Devaney inspect a refuge/barricade chamber just above the 4,900-level of Lucky Friday Mine. In the event of an emergency, miners would go to the chamber to wait for rescue. It holds 20 people and has enough oxygen for 36 hours.
The air smells different a mile under the surface. As you’d expect, it’s musty. Fresh air is pumped down thousands of feet, but it still smells like dirt. If ancient was a fragrance, this would be it.
For Norm Doxanakis and Conor Devaney, this is the office. On workdays, they descend into the darkness on a mining elevator — called the cage. The cage occasionally lights up as they ride down past lit floors where miners are removing silver, lead and zinc from the earth. Hecla’s Lucky Friday Mine near Mullan, Idaho, in the Silver Valley is the deepest mine in North America and it feels like it.
“This mine’s been around for 75 years,” Doxanakis said, adding that when it comes to safety, “we’ve got it pretty figured out by now.”
Safety comes first. Few places on the planet take the safety precautions miners take round-the-clock. Every move they make in a mine has safety in mind. Because of this, safety training is needed on a constant basis, so in 2013 Hecla Mining began supporting the annual Safety Fest training event hosted by NIC Workforce Training Center. Hecla Mining has since become a title sponsor and awards a grant annually to NIC WTC to help pay for Safety Fest.
Safety Fest offers three days of safety and health training for all types of industries in addition to mining, including transportation, health care, manufacturing, construction, and any local business that seeks to improve the safety performance of their operation.
All for free.
“We want to provide free training to anyone who wants it. People come from places all over the Northwest to learn how to save lives,” said Becky Colotti, a Hecla Mining Lucky Friday training specialist, who has been part of Safety Fest since the beginning.
This year, Safety Fest will have a hybrid of online and in-person classes when possible. Some of the classes to be offered include OSHA 10, Manufacturing Safety, Industrial Hygiene, MSHA Annual Refresher, Warehouse Safety, Project Management, Hazwoper, RCW/WAC Update, OSHA Record Keeping, Heavy Machinery and Equipment Safety, Accident Prevention, Focus Four and much more.
NIC Workforce Training Center hosts the event, but putting on Safety Fest is a group effort. Numerous companies and individuals volunteer their time. Everything is made possible by donations, both of time and money.
“It also doubles as a fantastic networking opportunity,” Colotti said. “The other partners in the event come from all over the Northwest, are heavily involved in the community, and share similar priorities.”
Registration will open in mid-January. The NIC Workforce Training Center welcomes new companies interested in giving their support. Short videos from inside the mine are available at www.nic.edu/wtc/facebook.
The 13th Annual Safety Fest of the Great Northwest will be held Feb. 17-19 at the NIC Workforce Training Center in Post Falls and online. Registration for free classes will open in January. For more information, visit www.nic.edu/safetyfest or call 208-769-7732.
