BISBEE — Slowly, the Southwest Heliservices chopper gently lifts a 900-pound bundle from the temporary heli-pad set up at Phelps Dodge in Bisbee and heads high up to deliver it to a crew of waiting men at one of the 10 holes on Higgins Hill scheduled for closure.
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Mining shafts and adits throughout the Bisbee area are being plugged as Terry Garner of the Phelps Dodge Mining Co. on Thursday pours a mixture of polyurethane, which will dry and harden to form a seal. (Ed Honda•Herald/Review)
With an estimated 200 mine shafts and adits (horizontal openings into the side of hills and mountains), the crews at Phelps Dodge, owned by Freeport McMoRan Copper and Gold Inc., have been working for the past two years to close them off to prevent potential accidents by staff and unwary trespassers, according to Terry Maddux, Phelps Dodge senior operating supervisor.
Last week, the plan was to get supplies up to 10 holes that were difficult to reach by normal methods.
“There’s no way we could get these materials up there any other way,” said Maddux. “These holes are remote, on steep slopes, and there is no way to drive up to them or hike up with that much of a load. Phelps Dodge doesn’t own mules anymore.”
Maddux said there was an effort on the part of all mining companies to close abandoned mine shafts after the terrible accident that cost a 14-year-old girl her life just two months ago in Northern Arizona. The tragedy has sparked an intensive search for unmarked, unrecorded shafts and adits on the 12 square miles of land owned by Phelps Dodge in Bisbee. During one of the mapping missions on Higgins Hill, a few more shafts were found.
“We think we have them all mapped, but then a new one will be found. When you have 40 or 50 mining companies and numerous individuals digging for ore over 130 years, there are going to be some surprises, especially since some are so remote and inaccessible. We will keep looking for them,” he added.
Phelps Dodge called on pilot George Ezell, owner of Southwest Helioservices, to haul the 15 pallets up to the sites. The first load lifted off at around 8 a.m., and Ezell was finished by noon. He has worked for Phelps Dodge Bisbee in the past, doing just what he did last Wednesday, delivering supplies.
Ezell has logged 18,000 hours in flying helicopters. He flew in Vietnam and continued his career in the private sector when he left the military. His services include medical evacuations, pipeline patrols, wildlife surveys, firefighting and movie filming. He recently finished up a National Geographic shoot on the border that will air sometime next year.
“It’s good work, and it keeps me busy,” he said as he waited for his helicopter to refuel. “There are jobs out there where you can make more money, but they won’t be as enjoyable.”
There’s a lot of work involved in the closure of shafts and adits.
Maddux explained, “We have to reconnoiter the sites and determine how we are going to close the holes. Some need reinforcing at the entrance. Then we have to figure out what supplies are needed. We make a list of the materials that are needed at each site and try to schedule the work.”
First a latticework of boards and debris from around the shaft are placed in the hole to make a platform for the fabric that holds the foam in place, explained Maddux. The polyurethane foam comes in a two-part bag that when unzipped allows the two chemicals to mix. Then it is squirted out of the bag and onto the fabric. It immediately starts expanding and turns into a cubic yard of hard plastic. Several bags are used at most sites depending on the depth and width of the hole.
It runs on average around $5,000 per hole, according to Maddux. The Glory Hole cost around $10,000 to fill.
Maddux explained that the holes can’t simply be blasted closed. The loose dirt and rock subside over time leaving a depression and possibly a dangerous situation.
“The foam was a life saver for us,” he noted. “We began using it when we first started to close the shafts and adits.”
Thirty years ago, crews went up to the shafts and fenced around them, but it didn’t keep people out of the dangerous digs. People would just tear down or cut the barbed wire to gain entry.
“Most people don’t understand how dangerous mining is,” he added.
He is interrupted by his ringing cell phone. It’s a woman from Old Bisbee complaining about the noise of the helicopter. When he tells the caller what they are doing, it makes no difference to her that the company is closing dangerous shafts and adits or that the helicopter has only a few loads left. She lets him know that she is peeved. It was one of many calls received by the Phelps Dodge office and the Bisbee Police Department wanting to know what was going on in the hills above Old Bisbee.
Up on Higgins Hill Thursday morning, Terry Garner, Ben Trappe and Allen Hoesey were busy mixing up some foam to dump in a hand-dug 6-foot shaft. They had been at it for a few hours.
“This stuff gets as hard as a rock,” Hoesey said. “It will hold up to 7,000 pounds.”
As the foam fills up the empty spaces, the men get ready to toss the rocks that were dug out from the shaft back into it. The effort of lugging rock back up the steep hill shows on the men’s faces. But, when they are done, one would never even know there was a shaft down into the ground. It looks natural.
A few holes will get special treatment due to the colonies of bats that make the empty caverns their homes for the summer. For those shafts and adits, a special corrugated pipe is fixed with a bat baffle that lets the little creatures in and out, but not large mammals.
Over the next few weeks, as teams can be scheduled to work on the closures, additional shafts and adits will be filled, blocked and landscaped. Eventually, all the man-made holes will be plugged and will lie forgotten, like the dreams of the men who dug them.
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