Bonne Terre Mine

[John_ZAR]

I was reading a Scuba Diving Magazine from June 2017 that had an article on the mine. What surprised me was there was no mention of tech options and from what I could see from the pictures it seemed to be a cave diving environment yet the article was geared towards OW divers.

I tried to see if this question has been covered previously but from what I could find the only conclusion I came to was that this is a cave environment for non cave certified divers. Is this true ?

Cheers,
John

 

[wmperry]

On the introductory trails there is (almost) always direct access to the surface and they flood the place with high powered lights. So... sort-of open water. There are places on those earlier trails that are in overhead, but they are short distances and would qualify as a swim through. At least until the power fails and the lights go out.

I don't know of any tech options there - they will try to keep you from taking a light on the dive. I argued and was allowed to take mine years ago.

As I did my technical training and now cave... let's just say my perspective on how cool those dives were has changed drastically.

 

[The Chairman]

It's an 18 mile lake 120 ft underground that's over 400-foot deep and would be easy to get lost in. I wish that they would open it up to tech/cave divers, but unless something has changed, you have to have a guide at all times. The "city" is really cool. Seeing the manger, the assay office and barracks was awesome. But those are "Bear Trails" and you're not going to see them without a guide and doing lots of the other trails first. It's pretty chilly at that.

Any of the trails are a cool dive, even for beginners. Seeing the humanity written in those caves is humbling. When you realise that the entire place was man-made, it's incredibly inspiring. It's one of the most unique diving spots in the world. You're either going to love it or hate it though. There doesn't seem to be much middle ground. I loved it.

 

[John_ZAR]

My cave diving is done mostly in a mine that is accessed 14m (46ft) from the surface and has only one entrance. There is another spot where you can exit, which was a ventilation shaft, but you end up in the bush with a bit of a walk left and you would only do it if there was no deco required.

So i think my confusion stems from the fact that this is also a mine and I think of tunnels and shafts that you dive i.e need to be fully cave trained. From what you guys are saying, I assume then it is an open water environment with a roof and some swim throughs that are lit up. From the pics I saw I thought it looked like an overhead environment hence my astonishment that it caters for OW divers only.

It seems illogical that you are not allowed to take a dive light into a cave environment or on any dive for that matter, what if there is a power failure.

Thanks for the answers.

 

[tkaelin]

I worked there many moons ago as a guide/rescue diver. As stated, it is guided rec diving which is cavern diving with open above head conditions for almost all of the diving. We did some pretty cool exploratory diving on our own time. As an aside it was amazing how many divers I had to go after who sank like stones as soon as they hit the water or left the main dive area and got out into deeper water.

 

[The Chairman]

It seems illogical that you are not allowed to take a dive light into a cave environment or on any dive for that matter, what if there is a power failure.

Once you get past a certain level, you're allowed to bring a light. However, for the purpose of many of the dives it's a matter of providing the right ambience and they don't want to confuse the signalling between the lead and the clean-up guides. A lot of extra lights would do that. FWIW, if the lights went out, the guides would get you back.

 

[flyingDiver75]

When I dove it last year, the guides specifically said part of their training / qualification required them to be able to navigate the group safely in the event the lights went out. I found the overall experience to quite surreal and worth it. I hope to return in the future and work up the trail numbers.