First, Nemis mentioned a 15ft X 15ft face for the ramp, so this obviously means that the ramp tunnel will be 15ft X15ft, which according to my father (assume all further technical details are provided by him), means that they will using one machine (drill).

This drill is NOT a like the diamond drills they use on surface. This drill (called a Jumbo) operates by hyrdaulic and compressed air power sourced from diesel engine driven pumps and compressors. The engines on underground equipment have srcubbers on the exhausts to eliminate emissions.

They will start the ramp by digging essentially a sink shaped like a right angle triangle on its side on surface to create a vertical face with a decline down to the face. Once this is prepared the drill can be wheeled down to the face to begin.

The drill will likely be using 16ft (5m) rods and normally they would do two runs (drill 5m, dig out the broken, loose rock called 'muck', and then drill another 5m) per day. Therefore, it is likely that ramp will advance at a pace of 10m per day, probably requiring 4.5 months to complete Phase 1.

The muck will be hauled away form the ramp face with scooptram or small dump trucks. Ususally there are openings created at regular intervals (perhaps every 100m) where the ramp will be widened to allow room to turn around machinery, and also allow for passing of vehicles.

They have to ventialte the face (the face is the wall of rock that is leading edge of the ramp that they are drilling on), so likley there will be 24" dia. vent hose (given the size of the ramp)run down and air will be circulated (sucking air out, and causing fresh air to be drawn down) by a large blower at surface.

They will also have to run pipes for pumping out water, which will no doubt accumlate at the face as they dig deeper - the water runs downhill and they will hit underground water sources as they dig.

Therefore, it easy to see how the deeper the go the more time consuming and labour intensive the process becomes.

They will likley stockpile the rock dug/hauled out of the ramp and surface perhaps for a month at a time and then haul it (that which they want tested) away by truck to the processing facility, which Nemis reported was about 50kms away by road.

Weather will no have impact on these operations. Obviously, once you are underground weather is not factor, and the deeper you get the warmer it gets. They will also likely put a door at surfcae to seal out the weather and control access, and they can easily heat the work area underground with portable heaters if need be.

More info below copied from a website...

Rergards,

B.

Underground Mining Methods

(Animations courtesy of Sandvik Tamrock Canada, accompanying text by Terry Gong, UBC Mining Engineering student)

Room and Pillar Mining

Ramps (inclined tunnels) are excavated to connect the surface to the
underground orebody. Drifts (horizontal tunnels) are excavated at different elevations to surround the orebody. Next, stopes (tunnels that have direct access to mining the ore) are mined to gain access to the ore. All tunnels are excavated by drilling and blasting. Jumbos are in charge of drilling the holes in the rocks and filling them with explosives. The loose rock, also called muck, is trnsported by either dump trucks or Load Haul Dump (LHD) vehicles back up to the surface for either waste disposal or processing. As mucking progresses, rooms (tunnels) are cut into the ore body. In order to provide safe roof support for mining, pillars of material around the rooms are left standing to hold up the rock ceiling above. Some parts of the mine roof can be particularly weak and
fragile. In addition to pillar support, a jumbo is then brought back in for rock bolting of the roof to ensure safety. When all the ore in the stopes has been transported up to surface, some pillars can be removed, since they still have valuable mineral content, while some must be left standing to provide active support for the ceiling. In some room and pillar mines, pillars are all excavated as
mining nears completion, to allow the natural collapse of the roof.

Cut and Fill Stoping

In cut and fill stoping, the orebody is retrieved in horizontal slices beginning at the very bottom and advancing upwards towards the surface. Ramps (inclined tunnels) are excavated to connect the surface to the underground ore body. Drifts are excavated to come in contact with the ore slices. The slices are drilled using a jumbo, blasted by charging the drill holes with explosives, and ore is
removed by using dump trucks or Load Haul Dump (LHD) vehicles. The ore is dumped into an ore pass, an inclined tunnel where ore is transported to a lower elevation in the mine. The ore is picked up at the other end of the ore pass by a LHD to be transported out of the mine through a ramp (inclined tunnel). Once a slice is completely mined out, the empty space is partially backfilled hydraulically. The backfill material used can be a mixture of sand and rocks, waste rock with cement, or dewatered mill tailings (rejected low grade ore from processing, usually fine and sandy). The backfill underground serves to keep the mine walls stable and also as the floor for mining the next slice. Mining continues upwards
towards the surface until the orebody is depleted.

Sublevel Stoping

Sublevel stoping is a mining method in which ore is blasted from different levels of elevation but is removed from one level at the bottom of the mine. Before mining begins, an ore pass is usually drilled from a lower to a higher elevation. Jumbos selectively drill holes into the roof of the drift and fill them with explosives. When the roof is blasted, loose rocks, or muck, fall through the drilled ore pass. A Load Haul Dump (LHD) vehicle transports the muck to
another ore pass where it falls to a hopper that feeds a crusher. The crushed ore is then elevated (raised) to the surface in a skip. As the muck is taken out, more drilling of the now higher roof continues. The roof is blasted till it is so high that it
cannot be reached by a jumbo. Then a jumbo working in a higher elevation drift is used to intersect the stope. After blasting, the ore falls down to the lower drift where LHDs can drive in to load the muck and dump it at an ore pass. Drilling and blasting continues until the stope is completely excavated. Once the stope is
completely hollowed out, it is backfilled from the bottom, up. The backfill material used can be a mixture of sand and rocks, waste rock with cement, or dewatered mill tailings (rejected low grade ore from processing, usually fine and sandy). The backfill material must have a lot of strength to support the roof of the empty stope.

Sublevel Caving

Sublevel caving is usually carried out when mining of the orebody through an open pit method is no longer economically feasible. Mining now proceeds underground, underneath the open pit. At first, both a raise and a network of tunnels are made. At different sublevels, jumbos are used for long hole drilling, drilling directly upwards into the roof. These holes are then charged with explosives and blasted. As the roofs cave in, the rock from the ground surface
will cave in to the underground as well. Load Haul Dump (LHD) vehicles transport the muck, loosened rocks, to an ore pass where the rocks are lifted to the surface. Drilling and blasting takes place at different underground levels of the mine at the same time. As the blasted rock, muck, is continuously transported to the ore pass, more blasting will encourage the roof to cave in to the void and further into the drift. This is repeated until blasting, caving and transporting depletes the entire orebody.

Glossary

Bolting - drilling a hole, and inserting a bolt to strengthen the
ceiling and walls of an underground mine

Crusher - a machine used to crush ore before it is transported

Drift - a horizontal underground tunnel that follows a vein or ore
body

Drilling and blasting - the process of using a drill to create long, narrow cylindrical holes in the rock, and filling these holes with
explosives which are then detonated to fragment the rock

Jumbo - a drill which is capable of drilling more than one hole at a
time and is especially useful in preparation for blasting.

Load Haul Dump - a vehicle with a large bucket on the front used for
transporting ore to crushing stations and mucking

Muck - waste rock that has been broken by blasting

Orebody - a naturally occurring concentration of minerals that can
be mined at a profit

Ore pass - a vertical or inclined passage that is used for transporting ore down to a lower level or hoist

Pillar - the columns of rock that are left to support the ceiling in
room and pillar mining

Raise - a vertical or inclined opening from one level of a mine
that is driven toward the level above

Ramp - inclined tunnels used to transport ore or machinery

Room - the open areas left open by blasting in room and pillar
mining

Skip - a self-dumping bucket used in a shaft for hoisting ore or
rock

Stope - an underground excavation from which ore has been removed

Tailings - materials rejected from a mill after the recoverable
valuable minerals have been extracted.

Glossary References: Mineral Resources Education Program of British Columbia, Social Studies 10/11:
Mining in BC A Resource Unit; The Northern Miner, Mining Explained: A Layman’s Guide (1996)