Mine Diving, Europe only activity?

[Oldbear]

In the US (Missouri) the Bonne Terre Mine is a very popular dive site.

Bonne Terre Mine

It is on my 2013 things to do list.

No longer on my 2013 Things to Do list or my bucket list for that matter.

Read: http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/mid-west-region/427189-bonne-terre-closing.html

From what I have read, not a well ran operation. Too bad, such a unique place. :depressed:

 

[mulla]

Thanks everyone for sharing your experience, definitely gave me some good alternative destinations to consider.

You could add to that list many other European countries as well, e.g. Spain, Italy, Hungary and Norway.
However, there are also countries without any natural caves at all, e.g. Finland. Instead, we Finns go cave diving in mines. There are about half a dozen mines that are regularly dived. A mine called Ojamo is the best known one. It has diveable mine tunnels ranging from 20m/60ft level all the way down to 238m/700ft depth.

The minimum dive certification for mine diving is "Intro to Cave" or "Mine Diver", but you may consider continuing to "Full Cave Diver" or "Technical Cave Diver". Also rebreather training is one consideration.

Personally I do not know Bonne Terre, but based on their web pages, it would seem to be open water guided theme park diving in a mine environment with direct access to the surface at all times. Minimum 12 years and open water C-card. Likewise based on respective web pages, LaMotte seems to have real mine diving for suitably qualified divers i.e. proper cave diving certs.

Mulla, you might want to contact the Cave Divers Association of Australia for further information about training and dive sites near you. Cave Divers Association of Australia | Incorporated in South Australia

The Ojamo mine videos are the ones that sparked my interest in this. Do the Finns run these "Intro to Cave" / "Mine Diver" courses at Ojamo? Any online info in regards to this, preferably in English

I believe we only have natural caves to dive in Australia thus, I've never really considered it until I saw the Ojamo videos. The abandoned equipment and machinery just adds to the excitement.

 

[Scared Silly]

I have dove mines in Europe out in the Med. Sea. Except these mines went boom. Was quite surprise that they had not been removed. Rather scary.

 

[r4e]

The Ojamo mine videos are the ones that sparked my interest in this. Do the Finns run these "Intro to Cave" / "Mine Diver" courses at Ojamo? Any online info in regards to this, preferably in English

I am glad the Ojamo mines sparked your interest. I can tell you that it is very addictive to dive there;-)

The courses I mentioned are standard courses from IANTD curriculum. There are also other organisations (NACD,TDI,GUE etc) who provide similar courses, although the Mine Diver course might be quite rare. Due to local regulations of Ojamo, none of the courses are taught in Ojamo mine. But there are other places in Finland and Sweden where these courses are taught. If you are seriously interested, I suggest that you first attend a Cavern course and perhaps even the Intro to Cave course locally where you live. Then you could attend a Mine Diver course by one of the Finnish instructors and I would not be surprised at all that they would invite you to Ojamo after the course. All of the instructors are fluent in English. PM me for contact info.

Here Ojamo mine | Divers of the Dark you can find an extract of a chapter describing Ojamo in English. There is a dozen pages about Ojamo with some really astonishing pictures. The remainder of the book describes Molnar Janos, a natural cave in Hungary. The book is available via Amazon.

The official Ojamo mine dive web portal is here: http://minedivers.com/ Only some of the text is in English - eventually somebody will translate the remainder. The picture on the front page is an aerial view of the partially ice covered quarry that leads into the mines. At the time of writing this message, there is a solid ice cover across the entire quarry with only a very small entry hole on the far right.

Here in the national archives https://astia.narc.fi/astiaUi/unitinfo.php?unitId=1199226.KA&base=digi you can find a digitized book of original Ojamo mine maps. You need to first click the link titled "Näytä digitoidut asiakirjat" and then you'll be able to browse the 60 high resolution maps. These are original maps hand drawn by mine engineers circa 1954-1963. The various maps show all the horizontal levels plus a number of vertical longitudinal and cross-sectional maps. These maps are used today as the basis for Ojamo mine diving. Be warned that it will take several hours to understand the full 3D shape of the numerous halls and connecting tunnels since most of the halls are not fully rectangular but rather are slanted slices following the ore.

Structurally the Ojamo mine is stable.

In addition to youtube, here http://vimeo.com/tag:ojamo you can find a number of good Ojamo videos

 

[mulla]

Thanks r4e for the super detailed info!! I've already seen the book extract and minedivers website, immediately found those after viewing the youtube video But the maps are definitely interesting, will spend a bit more time looking at them when I have a moment to spare. I've also seen your vimeo video on the "Helmet" definitely looks impressive.

Doing the Cavern course beforehand and popping over to finish the Mine diver rating definitely sounds like a plan. Tho I think I would need to sell a kidney to be able to afford this trip! Will have to start saving now! Probably won't get the instructor details from you just yet, think this is going to take a few years in the making.

 

[jennychavez]

Bonne Terre famous among divers.

 

[CamG]

Mine diving is dangerous as it is man made as structures deteriorate it gets unstable.
Training is a must and in the US mines are very privately owned thus securing permission is paramount.
There are options but I will not discuss them in public forum.
These are environments that are not like Bonne Terre they are not developed so it is tougher to dive them.

The mine diving is beautiful and videos are out there that are unbelievable.
Start with the cave training and move slowly when you are ready they hopefully will still be there.
Tech / overhead training is where you will need to start.

CamG

 

[Taliena]

In Belgium there are mines, but they are forbidden to dive. Only 1 you are allowed to dive, but that's a small one:110m. long.
There are 2 bigger ones, but officially forbidden to dive there. At youtube you see movies from that divesites, but you will never see the exact location.
Germany has some mines to dive: Christine (30 euro a day), and Miltitz (40 euro a dive). Kleinenbremen is possible too (52 euro a day), but it's always full (you need to wait 2 years to dive there).

And yes, you need to be a cavediver (at least intro to cave) to dive here. But officially most mines are more full cave than intro to cave (in the bigger ones in belgium you find at least 2 T's in a dive). A small mine in Belgium is nice because you find 2 restrictions, one directly after entering it, further it's more cavern (but a really big chance of zero vis due to a siltout in the restrictions.)

 

[admiralranga]

I believe there is one in WA, it was mentioned in passing by one of the UWA dive club members I'll try and find out where it was/ what it's called.
Edit: It's Lake Stockton (theres a flooded mine site on one end) although it is not a dive of the inexperienced by any stretch of the imagination.
[video=vimeo;43338557]http://vimeo.com/43338557[/video]

 

[DivingTodd]

No longer on my 2013 Things to Do list or my bucket list for that matter.

Read: http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/mid-west-region/427189-bonne-terre-closing.html

From what I have read, not a well ran operation. Too bad, such a unique place. :depressed:

I just came back from Bonne Terre a few weeks ago. The dive staff were all excellent and at no point did I ever feel uneasy or worried about a dive. The dives are all planned out and there's a progression to be able to go deeper into the mine. You must do the trails in order, no exceptions to that rule. There's a dive guide and several safety divers that go with you on each dive.

Not sure where the bad press is coming from, I had nothing but a great time there. It's definitely not closing, I plan on going back for years to come.