Down the mine

Steinbock_Travels Day 33
I worked a 4 hour early shift, then we drove to Kiruna, where I had booked the iron ore mine tour for 3pm. It was a really well organized trip, with a coach taking us to the visitor centre ( no AC and it was 32 deg C outside). The coach drives down over 500 metres in the mine, so they had to remove the AC due to height restrictions. Stepping out was a refreshing 15 deg down below. The guide showed us around many exhibits and machinery, model railway to explain the mine workings. It’s been operational for over 120 years, and the mining level is minus 1500m. I could ask all of my work related questions about explosive use, type and volume. They blast every day in 7 positions underground at 01.30 using 20 to 30 metric tons of emulsion ammonium nitrate explosives.per night. I really enjoyed to tour, and in the evening we parked up at the look out over the town for the night. It cooled down, and the sun actually went behind some clouds.