Leonard Mine

From ENHLDWiki

Introduction

The Leonard Mine was on the east side of the Butte Hill, close to Meaderville. It was eventually taken out by the Berkeley Pit and its headframe was collapsed (recorded in a famous series of photographs).

Skip Pockets

In 1912, the Leonard boasted an example of a relatively new approach to mining, the skip pocket. This procedure allowed space underground for a first-level separation of ore types. Steel gates and aprons, operated by compressed air, shunted the ore into the skip (ore car) of choice. 13-foot-long, 14"x14" timbers framed the station that included a skip pocket. At the Leonard in 1912, the skip-pocket station was 21.5 feet wide and had a double-track approach.

The drawing shows the skip pocket station at the 1800' level of Leonard Mine, No. 2 Shaft, in 1912.

References

• Skip Pocket at Leonard Mine, Handbook of Mining Details compiled from the Engineering and Mining Journal, McGraw Hill, 1912, p. 98-99.