Molding miners.

• Author: Ripley, Kate
• Position: Mining education at University of Alaska Southeast's Institute of Mining Technology - Special Section: Slow Bore: A Tale of Obstacle Courses, Bright Prospects & High Hopes - Cover Story

A school offering hands-on mining education benefits the mining industry, displaced workers and Southeast communities.

The smoke from the last blast has just about cleared from the Maggie Kathleen, the tunnel at the Institute of Mining Technology's training site on Mount Roberts near Juneau. University of Alaska Southeast instructor Bob Greig, his assistant Bob Koerperich and 20 mining students are standing outside the tunnel, waiting. There's not much they can do until the tunnel is completely ventilated. Then they'll head into the rock's dark recesses to inspect their handiwork.

Greig takes a quick look inside and announces, "From what I can see, it's still a little cloudy, but it doesn't look like a bad shot. I'm going to walk back one more time and if it's still good, I'll give you a signal."

The 54-year-old mining veteran disappears for a minute, then shouts "OK!" to the crowd. Wearing hard hats with miners' lamps, protective goggles and steel-toed boots, the students walk the tunnel's 320-foot length to the drift they blasted from the right-hand side.

The first thing a miner wants to do upon entering a tunnel after a blast is check overhead for loose rock, Greig warns. Then he should check the muck pile, the chunks of fallen rock, for any sign of misfired explosives.

After that, the "barring down" can begin. Greig hands two students long metal bars used to prod suspicious-looking rock that may be tenuously clinging to the tunnel ceiling. One student takes the bar and jams it up against the rock with gusto. A bit too much gusto, Greig decides. "Hey! You ain't killing snakes! Just listen to it," the instructor shouts.

The other student manning the bar, meanwhile, is too timid. "You're going to have to put some meat into it, don't just peck around," Greig explains. He takes the bar into his own hands for a quick demonstration. "Listen to it," he says, referring to the sound the bar makes against the rock. "That ain't going nowhere, is it?"

He keeps poking. Suddenly, the bar makes a hollow clanging noise. "But that is," he says, as several chunks come falling down. "And that is." He keeps going, talking while he works. "You work your way forward. ... Learn to read your rock, look for cracks, look for what doesn't look right." Greig passes the bar to another student, who goes after the job with renewed interest.

Learning by doing is what this program -- perhaps the only vocational mine training program in the nation -- is all about, Greig...