The Don Valley Brickworks Quarry, Past and Present
A Photo of the Quarry in 1977
A Photo of the Quarry in 2010
Mining Process
1. The level that the ground is at today, after being filled in with the material from the excavation of the ScotiaBank Tower.
2. The "benches" or levels of the quarry that were extracted, in order to get to the minerals at the bottom of the pit.
In this photograph, taken in 2010, the North Slope is at the top left side of the picture, with the East slope in the middle of the picture. The rock was mined in an area beneath the river in this photograph, with the surrounding slopes part of the benches created during the mining process, in order to get to the many layers of minerals, clay and shale beneath the ground.
The Open Pit Mine
Another example of an open pit mine
Open-Pit diamond mining or "Open-Cast Mining" (top of page, middle) is a method of extracting rock or minerals from the earth by removal from an open pit or burrow. Open pit mines are used when deposits of minerals are found near the surface or along kimberlite pipes. Open pit mining is used when the "overburden," or surface material covering the deposit, is relatively thin or the minerals are imbedded in structurally unstable earth (cinder, sand, or gravel) that is unsuitable for tunneling. "Pit lakes" tend to form at the bottom of open-pit mines as a result of groundwater intrusion. When mining began for the Don Valley quarry, open-pit mining was more cost efficient, and was more practical considering that the ground was unstable for tunnels, and the minerals they were mining for were fairly close to the surface. Underground mining would have been far more costly, as well as dangerous, considering that the ground that they were uprooting was not suitable for tunnels, and could have collapsed.
