Coline Smetaniuk - Sacred Heart School/ Ecole Sacre Coeur, Estevan.
On the morning of August 22nd we began our day by donning our SMA logo-ed orange shirts. After a quick breakfast at the Stage Coach Hotel in Willow Bunch we visited the Edouard Beaupre monument. He was the 8'3" "Giant of Willow Bunch".
We hopped on the bus and arrived at the Poplar River Mine in a timely fashion thanks to the use of a short cut shown to us by Al. We were greeted by Emily and Jarad who then introduced us to the maintenance manager Mark. Mark took us on a tour of the maintenance shop. We saw several neat things including the giant chain which the drag line uses to pull its bucket as it fills.
We boarded the bus along with Emily Jared, Al, and Cory, and Regan and took a drive to the edge of the mining pit where we could see the coal being loaded onto trucks on the one side. While on the other, we could see the dragline removing the overburden and exposing the coal. From a distance it is difficult to fathom the shear size of the drag line, so we moved closer for a better look. It was difficult to gain perspective because the dragline is a full football field in length! We could see a chain like the one from our earlier picture. It looked miniscule in comparison to the machine as a whole. We watched the dragline take several scoop fulls and dump them. The bucket on the dragline is capable of digging a average house basement in 1.5 scoops.
Again we boarded the bus and this time made our way to the load-out station where coal is loaded onto a 25 car train which hauls it to the Poplar River Power Plant. There is an operations room located at the site where we witnessed this process. The rail line, engine, and cars are all owned, maintained and operated by Poplar River Mine. They own their own real, life-sized train set.
On the final stage of our tour Ken drove our nice, white bus, onto the black, dirty, coal bed where we were given the opportunity to get out and walk around on the coal. After collecting samples of the coal, observing the strata, and taking some pictures, it was back to the bus to head to the main office for lunch.
Luckily Guy and Steve showed up just in time. Rodney, Myles, and a few other special people from the mine also stayed for a bite and shared their wealth of information with us during this wonderful meal. The cake and ice cream for dessert was delicious.
A special note must be made in full appreciation of Al, Amy, Jared, Cory, and Regan. Our guides on the bus were extremely knowledgeable, approachable, and answered any question with clarity. This made our tour so much more informative and enjoyable.
After a short description of some coal cores on the way out to the bus by Steve (and a serious attempt to clean the coal off our pants and steel-toed boots..Sorry Ken), we hit the road again. The second half of our day saw us end up at the Potash Interpretive Center in Esterhazy. By this point we had been sitting on the bus for 866 kilometres.
Tara Fisher (group 1)
Curtis Hoffart (group 2) (both of us from Riffel High School in Regina)
Upon arriving at the Potash Interpretive Centre in Esterhazy, we split up into 2 groups based upon our attendance "roll call" numbers. Yup, that's definitely a teacher thing! The two groups alternated touring the centre and dining at Hazy's Family Restaurant where they had a delicious 'home-cooked' turkey dinner buffet prepared for us. Group 2 was very jealous because Group 1 was the first to be stuffing themselves with stuffing (not to mention that they were better looking).
The Potash Interpretive Centre tours were given by two retired mine workers, John and Richard, who were both very knowledgeable and passionate about the industry. The centre was very well set up with visually descriptive displays, models and videos. Even without an actual tour guide we still would have learned a lot. Having said that, we sure did pepper the tour guides with plenty of questions that they happily answered for us. It was very valuable to have this tour before touring the mine the next day, as we learned so much.
Following the tours and supper we loaded the bus once again and headed for the metropolis of Moosomin. After checking in at the CanAlta Hotel, the hotel staff were gracious enough to keep the pool and waterslide open for an extra hour for some of the group to enjoy. Another full and enjoyable day!
No comments:
Post a Comment