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Article: Prospering with low-grade ore
- Article from:
- Journal of Business
- Article date:
- April 25, 1996
- Author:
CopyrightCopyright Northwest Business Press Inc. Apr 25, 1996. Provided by ProQuest LLC. (Hide copyright information)
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REPUBLIC, Wash.--With creamy mud clinging to his boot and the tight beam of his hard-hat lamp dancing on the shadowy walls of a freshly carved stope deep in the Lamefoot deposit here, Ron Hanson is at the core of a collision between high technology and damp, grimy tradition.
Positioned safely back from the new, unreinforced chamber, the veteran hard-rock miner delicately wobbles two computer joy sticks to maneuver a remote-controlled seven-ton mucker into the dark excavated area to retrieve gold-laden ore.
"If part of that ceiling comes down, we can replace the equipment it crushes," mining superintendent E. "Junior" Russell yells to a visitor over the rumble. We just don't want to put one ...