TikTok mine explorer reveals the weirdest things he’s found

Peter Pink has found some odd things in abandoned mine shafts (Picture: PA)

A mine explorer who helped locate the body of a missing man last year has shared what he’s discovered – including an underground blacksmith’s workshop and explosives.

Peter Pink, 38, a care worker from Middlesbrough, has spent the past seven years exploring mines in England and Wales which have been closed for decades.

Peter, who lives in Guisborough, North Yorkshire, always carries a gas monitor to check how much oxygen is in the air and gives his wife Emma, 32, a ‘call out time’ so that if he does not resurface, she will alert the emergency services.

On March 24, 2023, Peter and his friend Bob Johnson helped discover the body of 24-year-old Adam Perkins in Ayton Monument Mine after he was reported missing earlier that week.

He’s seen some graffiti from the 1800s (Picture: PA)

The missing mine explorer was found by emergency services after Peter discovered his rucksack in an area of the mine with critically low oxygen levels.

Because of the risks, which also include rotten false floors and crumbling passageways, Peter does not wish to reveal the exact locations of the mines he frequents.

But he’s found a number of historical objects over the years, including a blacksmith’s workshop with a forge, anvil and hammer, as well as old sticks of dynamite and graffiti dating back to the 1800s.

He posts pictures and videos of his adventures on YouTube and TikTok under the name Mine Explorer UK, some of which have clocked more than five million views.

He said: ‘I found loads of old dynamite. They go like a squashed banana and the only thing keeping them together is the label.’

But Peter warned it is extremely dangerous for anyone without training to enter an abandoned mine.

Peter’s passion for exploring abandoned mines started in 2017 after he stumbled upon a small hole in Loftus, North Yorkshire, and posted a picture online which received attention.

Many of the mine shafts are now flooded (Picture: PA)

He explained: ‘It went from that small hole to abandoned train tunnels and then I discovered the mines and I’ve never gone anywhere else.’

Peter now drives hundreds of miles around the country in his spare time to explore old mines and has amassed more than 37,000 followers on TikTok.

Among them is an ironstone mine in North Yorkshire where Peter discovered the blacksmith’s workshop with the equipment having been left untouched since the 1950s – and it still smells of oil, he said.

‘There’s also a blacksmith’s hammer resting on the forge which has been left there since it closed in the 1950s,’ he explained.

Air levels in the caves can drop suddenly (Picture: PA)

He has also visited a number of lead mines in Cumbria and has found old dynamite sticks, some of which were branded Nobels, after the Swedish chemist Alfred Nobel who invented the explosive in the 1860s and used his fortune to establish the Nobel Prize institution.

‘I’ve been that far down that I found a stick which said Nobels on it. But I didn’t obviously pick that up…’

Shovels, pickaxes and graffiti dating back to the 1800s are just some of the other amazing finds Peter has made during his underground adventures.

But exploring these abandoned tunnel systems, some of which are 30 miles long, can prove fatal as oxygen levels in the air can change suddenly.

Some of the tunnels are 30 miles long (Picture: PA)

Oxygen usually makes up around 21% of the air we breathe in at ground level but in the mines that level can dip as low as 12%, when you start to lose consciousness.

Peter said: ‘You can die within minutes. When you are underground it can just start dropping. You can’t breathe or walk, not properly anyway – it feels like someone is sitting on your chest.

‘You’re staggering all over, you can’t think properly and start slurring your words and then if you stay there long enough, you’ll pass out.’

To prep for this, Peter always carries a four gas monitor to keep an eye on the oxygen levels and refuses to explore coal mines where other harmful gases known as damps can be found.

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He added: ‘It usually happens where there are rotten timbers. Makes me laugh because outside, where we are now, you need trees to breath, but in a mine they are trying to kill you.’

In March last year, Peter helped emergency services to discover the body of fellow mine explorer Adam.

The 24-year-old had last been seen at on Monday March 20 2023 when Peter found his rucksack in a section of Ayton Monument Mine where he said oxygen levels were below 15% – known to the mining community as the ‘wheel of death’.

Adam’s body was discovered further down the mine from the rucksack Peter had found on Friday March 24 2023.

Peter has a policy of leaving no trace while exploring – only footprints.

Despite the risks, he is keen to travel across the UK, exploring abandoned mines along the way and has launched a TikTok and YouTube channel for people to follow his journey.

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