My husband is a Mining Engineer. He love's old and new mines and we love to day trip southern arizona.
What a great day to spend with a passel of little boys.
Outside Tucson, south on I19, we take a west turn on Twin Buttes and go to a Copper Mine with some of the grandkids. Saturdays they run a little tour through the Mineral Center and the mine complex. We took the first tour at 9 am and it was still crazy hot!
Outside the Mineral Center we saw retired mining equipment. Ore wagons and cars, steam diggers. The kids went into a bucket digger...and those things are WAY bigger these days. Inside the Mineral Center they displayed ore and specimen rocks. There were films an diorama's explaining the mining processes used at this mine. After an informative discussion from the docent we boarded the bus and proceeded to enter the restrictive mine area. Once in the actual mine area our bus driver began to drive on the left side of the road. This is common in mines, it allows the huge truck drivers a better chance of seeing you and not making you and your car into peanut butter.
This is an open pit design mine. Most are these days. This is my husbands specialty, his company Mintec, Inc., creates, installs and teach their mining clients to use their 3-D proprietary mining design program called "Minesight". They are huge in the mining business. Mintec's home office is in Tucson and they have several international offices worldwide.
The kids took their own photos to share with mom and dad. Afterwards we went to eat at Popeye's Chicken and spent the latter half of the beautiful day cooling down in the pool. A great Saturday!
Sharing at these lovely linkies:
No comments:
Post a Comment