MINE SURVEYING/UNDERGROUND SURVEYING

 MINE SURVEYING/UNDERGROUND SURVEYING

In general the principles of underground surveying are similar to surveying on the surface with a few exceptions. For starters, the work settings and conditions differ from those of surface. Other than that, the instruments used for underground surveying are also different. 

To put them together, changes experienced in underground surveys are:

• Having limited working space, we make use of smaller instruments of special design, fitted with extension tripod legs.
• Having limited sight/vision, it is necessary to adopt special observation methods. Extra care is needed to ensure limited errors in making observations.
• For traversing, the transit is placed on the roof which means there is alteration in traversing as well. 
• Because there is limited/no light as we proceed underground, extra care is given to ensure proper illumination on the work site. 
• Just like general surveying, we have to ensure three points to set up a triangulation from where we can measure the distances on slopes. 

EQUIPMENT USED FOR MINE SURVEYING

Primary instrument used for mine surveying is called Mine Transit. It is smaller in size than the ordinary total station. However, there are instances where the sight can be too steep. In that case, an auxiliary telescope is attached to the transit or the main telescope. 

This type of attachment serves an advantage. With this, the auxiliary telescope becomes interchangeable between top and side positions. And last but not least, we have the eye-piece and tripod attachment at the bottom.