ODDS’N’SODS — Common sense, time management will stand the test of time

Outstanding physical and mental attributes were required of workers in the demanding and dangerous business of excavating raises in the mines of yesteryear.

John Rozek was a miner possessive of these and other qualities. Equipped with only such meager supplies as a hammer, chisel, pick, sealing bar, stoper drill, wooden sprags and staging planks, he toiled unassisted in his efforts to advance the steeply inclined openings in the underground theatre.

John arrived here from Poland during the Great Depression, and was able to find work as a miner quickly at both Quebec’s Noranda-Rouyn project and Ontario’s Kirkland Lake gold camp. When competition and rivalry in the workplace were at their fiercest, John mastered the basic procedures, perfected his skills and became one of the most sensible and industrious miners I have known.

As the Second World War escalated, he volunteered for the Canadian Army and saw action overseas. On his return to Canada, he turned, once again, to mining in la belle province, where he met and married a village lass. As the mining boom swept across Canada during the post-war years, John and his family moved to the Kootenays region of British Columbia, where they resided.

I first met John in the early 1950s at the Reeves MacDonald mine at Salmo, B.C., near the U.S. border. Employed as a raise miner, John was driving 6-by-6-ft. slot raises in the development of the sublevel stope system, where he was completing two rounds per shift, a feat hitherto unachieved at the operation.

I was astonished at his ability and often questioned him on his methods. With a twinkle in his merry blue eyes, he would explain that his accomplishments were the result of organization, planning and making the most of his time. “I don’t work hard,” he said. “I work steadily and carefully; I prepare the workplace and then manage myself.

John never failed to make remarkable progress during his shifts, which he completed without accidents or lost time.

When a mining school in Rossland, B.C., was opened, it was a great blessing that John decided to come out of retirement and serve as an instructor. As an instructor on both drift and raise mining, he commanded the respect and admiration of all those fortunate enough to have studied under him.

His advice to students was wise and simple. “Discipline yourself,” he would say. “Plan your moves and don’t fight the rock or the equipment. Manage your time on the job.”

Some fine young miners emerged under John’s tutelage.

Once, the supervisor of a mine invited me to inspect the workplace of a certain miner. We climbed the clean, secure ladders in the raise and crept through the staging. It was easy to deduce that this was the work of a student of John’s, as the work area was in a condition that was perfectly safe and orderly. When I met the miner, he enthused, “I’m trying for two rounds per shift.”

John Rozek passed away a few years ago, but I have a feeling he was happy and satisfied in knowing that he had passed on his professional skill and pride to many youngsters, some of whom became the best miners of their kind in Canada. They had the advantage of learning from a master craftsman.

As we look toward the revitalization of the mining sector in this country, it is clear that the next generation of miners will have to adjust to new methods, equipment, and schedules of cost and debt repayment.

It is, therefore, perhaps all the more advisable that we heed the advice of John Rozek. His simple axiom has stood the test of time: Manage your time and organize yourself, and the achievement will be there at the end of the day.

— S.J. Hunter, a retired mining engineer and regular contributor to this column, resides in Vancouver, B.C.