Mining Plans Reviewed

Taking the mule into the  deep new dig would be impossible.  Bhraz tried to convince me that they've been doing plenty of work to improve the route, and that there'd be little problem over most of the journey.  But I didn't care.  The damn thing can be someone else's problem for a few days.

We set off yesterday afternoon after eating, and made good time into the deeps.  The scenery changed within a few hours, and the civilised colonies gave way to the rougher terrain of the commercial digging operations.  As evening drew on we moved into some good, honest stone-works, roughly dug and very satisfying to my Dzarraf spirit.  We stayed overnight in a small mining camp.  It had a frontier feeling, and sitting among the local workers through the evening we heard many stories of the front line of digging.  It was good that we brought some beer to share among the workers.  Everyone had been on edge – they could all sense the presence of the gold, perhaps not as well as Bhraz, but they all knew something was up.

It was not even an hours walk this morning to get us to the prospective site of the new seams.  I was quite concerned at first that the entrances would not have been secured and strengthened correctly, but the final dig site looks clear and well laid out.  There are a dozen others here just working on tidying the entrances up to improve access for the dig teams and to make the whole place safer.

In the middle of the central cavern young labourers were setting out the mining camp for the workers that are to come.  They are taking cut-off stone from the corridors and entrances where they had been levelling and widening the surrounding tunnels and using it to build dozens of small temporary homes.

Bhraz lead me down a smaller side cavern, where digging had been done a few weeks ago.  I could sense the change of atmosphere, the presence of gold making small vibrations in my ankles and knees.  I've not experienced that for a few years, I can tell you, but it's a good feeling.  Bhraz's eyes had brightened up, his beard was starting to bristle out.  He was much more sensitive to this than me.

"Here", he whispered as he pointed to the wall.  It looked no different to the other walls that we'd walked past on the way down.  I put my hands up to it, I could sense something, but I couldn't tell what it was – it didn't feel like gold.

"Taste it", he said.  I stuck my tongue out and gently ran it along the wall.  Again, a mixed sensation met me; I thought it was more like copper.  I said so.

"That's what I thought at first", Bhraz confirmed my suspicions, "but the presence of gold is unmistakable.  I can feel it in my joints".  It's no wonder he's the engineer, not me.  We moved on deeper down the corridor.  The vibrating in my ankles was getting stronger.  We stopped again – you could almost smell the gold here, but you still couldn't see it.  The walls just looked grey and dull.  When they opened this channel up, those digging must have known there was gold about.  We searched further, the effect on my ankles was becoming unbearable.  We'd only been in this place for a few minutes too, but I couldn't work it out; I only got the sensation not the taste or the smell.

To confirm it, Bhraz took out a small hammer and a cold chisel.  He dug into the wall with the metal tools and as stone chips began to fly he grabbed a couple of the larger ones that landed at his feet.  He handed them to me and nodded; I sniffed, and I tasted again.  This time there was no mistake.  Gold.

We talked through the extent of the seams, Bhraz chipped a few more sections away as we walked down the newly dug corridor.  It seems like a large area for the gold to be spread over, but looking back I think there's more than just gold there – something is tainting the metal.  Bhraz took some chalk and marked on the walls where he thought new digging should take place to find the gold.  He showed me a crude chart and drew in the dirt to explain some of the calculations they'd made.  I agreed with him, he has clearly done a proper survey of these tunnels.

My job is not to assess the quality of the seams, but to approve safety measures and investigate if anything goes wrong – in this case ensuring the plans for the safety of the dig are set up properly and followed accurately.  We spent lunchtime and the last few hours going over those plans.  It's clear that while he's a good engineer, Bhraz is not so familiar with security or safety.  He knew where he wanted to dig, he knew how to get to the best gold in here; but he was not experienced at running a dig site of this size – and the presence of the gold will make this site about three times as big as it would otherwise have been.  But I needed to discuss most of this with Harik; I'd really like to know who is being appointed to oversee the camp's security once it's all up and running.

Now we're just grabbing an hours rest and sharing our pork and fruit with the workers.  We'll head off back after this, and with some luck we'll be back in Raskna by the end of the day – but it'll be late.  I doubt I can give my report to Hushmaz, Harik will be wanting to see me for my full report, and I have a few safety questions for him to answer in return.