In the background you can see a door. This door was closed to help ventilate the mine. There were similar doors on each level of the mine. The miners would close all of the doors except a few to make sure that the deepest level of the mine was being ventilated. There were forced air blowers on the surface that made this possible.
Tour guide always asks ?
There are two pipes shown in this picture. What were they for?
One was to pump out the water.
One was to bring forced air (energy) into the mine. Drills, ore car engines, and sluicing machines ran off of forced air.