January - February 2014
MODERN QUARRYING
19
FACE TO FACE
chosen to do the first trials with electronics on opencast mines in
South Africa,” he says.
“When blasting with cartridge explosives, the procedure was to
burn all the empty explosive cartons after the blast. We were using
up to 300 cartons per blast with each carton weighing 25 kg. You can
imagine the size of the heap,” he tells
MQ
.
“One day during the burning of these cartons, Herr Weber, Willie
Hartzer and I were standing near this burning heap. Herr Weber asked
me what the crackling noise was and my response was not to worry
as it was only the wax coating inside the boxes. Unbeknown to me, a
Dynagel cartridge was left in one of the boxes, resulting in one hell of
an explosion right next to us. We stumbled away shocked and con-
cussed, covered with half burnt boxes and ash.
“Primary crushing was done with a 6,0” Allis Chalmers Mc-Gully
crusher, which we called the Makally for short. This crusher served
Coedmore well for many years before being taken out of produc-
tion. The problem then was how to dispose of it as it was too large for
the scrapyards to handle. Remembering the sugarcane rollers that I
blasted at Effinghem, I could not resist the temptation and offered to
do the job.
“The bowl section that needed to be blasted was set up and pre-
pared for blasting, and word got out that I was going to blast this
crusher, with my audience getting bigger. The more my audience
grew, the more concerned I was that the blast might fail, and the more
explosives I subsequently added. When I eventually detonated the
blast, I not only wiped out this crusher completely, but also took out
half of the nearby electrical substation. Willie Hartzer was convinced
that pieces of the crusher flew past the first American Space Shuttle,”
Henry adds.
Report by Dale Kelly. The cartoon sketches were done by Henry Terblanches’
daughter-in-law Carol. Photographs courtesy Henry Terblanche.
MQ will continue with Henry’s memoirs in the March/April conference issue.
Pieces of the old Makally seen
in outer space.
