The man who educated the Ninja Turtles
A 37-YEAR-OLD Tamworth man travelled to Mongolia to put his skills in mines rescue to the test in the gold mines.
Craig Notman, who lives in Wilnecote, is a former miner from Daw Mill colliery and now works in mines rescue near Burton on Trent.
He was chosen to take part in the BBC 'Toughest Place to be' series which featured mining when it was screened at the weekend.
Sunday's BBC2 programme showed Craig using his skills as a mines rescue worker in a gold mine in Mongolia.
He told theHerald: "We went out to Mongolia to highlight the plight of the so-called 'ninja' miners, an artisan mining community.
"Their working day is unsafe and we are safe, so we went to educate their people to improve their working environment.
"They work in such tiny spaces, where you can just get half of your body in to a tiny working space."
As Mongolia becomes one of the fastest-growing economies in the world thanks to its abundance of minerals, thousands of people, desperate for a living, head out into the wilderness to claim their own stake in the country's gold deposits.
Many are nomadic herdsmen who lost their livelihood due to severe weather conditions.
Craig stayed with husband and wife Sukhbaatar and Gansuvd, two of the unofficial miners known as Ninja Turtles because of the green bowls which they often carry on their back.
He saw how miners risked death or serious injury every day for a few pounds worth of gold, digging dangerous shafts and tunnels into the often frozen earth.
Viewers saw how when Sukhbaatar discovered that other miners had got into his hole and dug out the gold, Craig became even more motivated to rise to the challenge and join the Mongolian ninja miners, making it a matter of principle to dig his own hole, hit the gold seam and extract the precious metal to give to his host.
Craig added: "The visit to Mongolia has opened my eyes, it was upsetting but interesting and I hope something good is going to come out of it."
Back at work, Craig is one of a 13-strong mines rescue team, all former miners. They can be called out to incidents at collieries across the country where there specialist knowledge is needed.
Craig Notman, who lives in Wilnecote, is a former miner from Daw Mill colliery and now works in mines rescue near Burton on Trent.
He was chosen to take part in the BBC 'Toughest Place to be' series which featured mining when it was screened at the weekend.
Sunday's BBC2 programme showed Craig using his skills as a mines rescue worker in a gold mine in Mongolia.
He told theHerald: "We went out to Mongolia to highlight the plight of the so-called 'ninja' miners, an artisan mining community.
"Their working day is unsafe and we are safe, so we went to educate their people to improve their working environment.
"They work in such tiny spaces, where you can just get half of your body in to a tiny working space."
As Mongolia becomes one of the fastest-growing economies in the world thanks to its abundance of minerals, thousands of people, desperate for a living, head out into the wilderness to claim their own stake in the country's gold deposits.
Many are nomadic herdsmen who lost their livelihood due to severe weather conditions.
Craig stayed with husband and wife Sukhbaatar and Gansuvd, two of the unofficial miners known as Ninja Turtles because of the green bowls which they often carry on their back.
He saw how miners risked death or serious injury every day for a few pounds worth of gold, digging dangerous shafts and tunnels into the often frozen earth.
Viewers saw how when Sukhbaatar discovered that other miners had got into his hole and dug out the gold, Craig became even more motivated to rise to the challenge and join the Mongolian ninja miners, making it a matter of principle to dig his own hole, hit the gold seam and extract the precious metal to give to his host.
Craig added: "The visit to Mongolia has opened my eyes, it was upsetting but interesting and I hope something good is going to come out of it."
Back at work, Craig is one of a 13-strong mines rescue team, all former miners. They can be called out to incidents at collieries across the country where there specialist knowledge is needed.
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