Entering the mine site through the security gates , we missed out on the random drug tests for anyone entering the site , how unfortunate hahaha . Touring around the workshop area and the spare parts section was interesting . There were several old tray from the tippers - they have 5 ribs that support the tray , you can see the arrow , it indicates where the steel has snapped after repeated stretching from all the loads of ore - once it has snapped due to metal fatigue , it is replaced and the old tray recycled .
There are rows of new tyres for the tippers - $40,000 each !!! and you complain about the price of your car tyres !!
And while we're on tyres , this is the tyre change bay , when the rims are installed in the tyres , each wheel then weighs 5 tonne , it's a 2 man job to change them and takes an hour to inflate them to 100 psi !!
The tippers cost $4.4 million each !!!
This one is a Letourneau and is worth $8 million !!!
From here we go around toward the pit , there are several flat areas around , one is used for removing steel , timber & plastic - anything that isn't rock basically - the crushers don't function well with it in amongst the rock - this is done by hand !! Here's a pile of it .
All of this material comes from the old mine shafts that the superpit has consumed - there are timber pit props , steel pipes & rail tracks and cables .
The pit wasn't working a lot this morning , with safety talks & checks being done , so the tippers were lined up ready to go . There's only 40 of them here !!
Heading off to our first lookout was different , like driving down a 4 lane hwy made of dirt . There were some tippers working in an area they are getting ready for expansion of the pit . The vehicle on the right is a support truck - delivering diesel or other fluids and or mechanical assistance .
We arrived at our first stop , right on the side of the pit , here's what it looks like .
Each step in the side of the pit is 32 metres in height . In the next photo you can see a dark section that goes from right to left and downwards - that is lava from a lava flow - this was once a volcano , and that explains why there is gold here apparently !!
Down at the bottom of the pit are 3 drilling rigs , they've been drilling holes for explosives to blow up the next section of the pit .
The recent rains have washed down some of the dust in the pit and made for an amazing display of colour when we got into the right position to see it .
From here we headed to the high grade ore pile ready for the crusher - just looks like a pile of rock , but it's high grade and the most productive ore .
On the far side of the mechanics & storage area is the mid range ore that has been stockpiled - apparently there is 13 years worth of processing this pile alone when the mine closes the pit down !!!!
From the crusher we go down into the processing plant and see how they reduce the rock several times , eventually to a slurry , then dried out and piled up on the other side of the plant . It's the final step before attaching it to steel wool and then melting it and pouring it into ingots , here's the powder pile . The pile actually glitters in the sun - photos don't do it justice .
And that's as much as we could see , it was a great tour though , thoroughly enjoyable .
Cheers
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