1600 Feet Underground

My brother-in-law, Brian, works for an amazing company in Wyoming - FMC. FMC has the largest trona mine in the world, with 2,000 miles of tunnels/roadways...all 1,600 feet underneath the ground. Quite a production. The underground roadway systems encompass a larger street grid area than San Francisco.

What is Trona?

Trona is a mineral mined and broken down into Sodium Carbonate. Have you heard of Baking Soda? Well, this is what Baking Soda looks like before it is broken down into a powder. Sweet, huh?! Trona is also used in many other food products and detergents, to name a few.

Why am I telling you this? Well, when we went to Wyoming in July, Brian was nice enough to take us down into the mines. Here is how it went down.

First things first, we had to watch a training safety video. After all, we were going a quarter mile underground, where, if not careful, the air quality could be pretty poor. Luckily, this company is a very safe company. They gave us "Self Rescuers" just in case we encountered some bad air.

Then, we had to put on all the safety equipment.

Kyle was too cool to wear the Sexy Jumpsuit, but I knew I had to wear it. How could I not?! This is my sexy pose...

Then it was off, or should I say "down" to the mines.

We headed to the Elevator Shaft. This elevator can hold up to 40 tons. HUGE. An entire vehicle, plus more, can fit into the shaft. It takes about 2-4 minutes to get down into the mine. It moves fast. Brian is on the right, and Lamar, my other Bro-in-law is the left. I wish I had a better picture to show you how big the elevator was...

Once we were down in the mine, this is what we saw. If you take a look at the walls, it is pure rock/dirt. It looks like cement, but it is actually carved rock with reinforcements rods placed about one foot apart. Amazing!

In order to get anywhere, we had to find a vehicle. Because the mine has miles and miles of roadways, everyone gets around in jeeps. A strange mix of what kind of look like Nazi Germany military jeeps, dune-buggies, and flat topped jeeps with no windshields.

Once settled in our jeep, we headed off to see the action.

Below is a Boar Miner. This machine is what actually creates the roadways. You can see the "teeth" sticking out everywhere behind us. This is what eats away the walls. Then they send the rock/dirt out on a conveyer belt which takes the material to an elevator shaft and up to the surface. That's just the first part. This is what preps them to mine the trona.

Then comes the LongWall, where they extract the trona. Unfortunately, we could not take pictures during this part. Because the mine is so far underneath the ground, the flash can set a spark. If there is any gas in the mines, it can set off an explosion. Pretty scary. But to sum up the LongWall, this machine can extract up to 900 TONS OF TRONA PER HOUR. It is insane what this machine can do. (The following 2 pics were taken from the internet)

After seeing the Long Wall, it was time to head up to the surface. We all had a great time down in the mines, but it was kind of a relief to come back up.

Thanks to Brian for taking time on his weekend to show us this amazing FMC mine. It was truly an amazing adventure. Brian would be proud to know our farts have smelled like sulfur ever since.