Sinking Platform

a metal structure, sometimes mul-tideck, designed to house machinery and secure suspended equipment during shaft sinking operations in mines. A sinking platform protects workers if objects accidentally fall into the shaft. It is used to erect permanent supports and reinforcements in the shaft and to secure the guide cables of the bucket hoists.

A sinking platform is suspended on special or guide cables of low speed winches installed on the earth’s surface; these cables lower the platform as the face advances. During operations, the sinking platform is secured to the walls of the shaft by shoes; the shoes use hydraulic jacks or sliding timbers that fit into sockets left in the walls of the shaft. Before shotholes are exploded in the face of the shaft, the winches raise the sinking platform to a safe elevation.