Super Pit - Kalgoorlie-Boulder

Today was a “learn about mining in Kalgoorlie-Boulder day”. We went to the Super Pit shop which is the shop representing the Super Pit which is what they call the largest open cut gold mine in Australia and used to be called the Golden Mile. Basically, the Super Pit is designed to extract the remaining ore in the in haloes surrounding the ore bodies which were tunnel mined in the past. When completed the pit will be 3.8 kilometres long, 1.35km wide and deeper than 500 metres. Currently Kalgoorlie Consolidated Gold Mines removes about 85 million tonnes of material per year; of this some 12 million tonnes of gold bearing ore are produced and milled. Mining is carried out 7 days a week, 24 hours per day, 365 days per year in the Super Pit. We watched a video of mining operations and blasting there then went to the actual pit to take a look from the observation point. It really is huge and quite interesting to watch the humongous big tip trucks driving along the roads of the tiers collecting the ore. When you see the size of them against a four-wheel drive going along the same road, they really are big! Also, we came across the tray of one being carried on a semi along the road up further and that give you a much more realistic idea of how big they are. Just amazing! Next we went up to the lookout on Mt Charlotte which apparently is very close to where Paddy Hannan who registered the first claim in the area in 1893 made his find. It is also where the Golden Pipeline ends; this being the pipeline put in place back in 1903; it was an incredible feat of engineering in its day bringing water 565 km from Mundaring Weir to Kalgoorlie. The head of the project, C.Y. O’Connor, suffered heavy criticism at the time and unfortunately took his own life before water started flowing through it.
We went to the Australian Prospectors and Mining Hall of Fame next and had lunch at the cafe there then started to look around on our way to the first scheduled demonstration which was gold pouring. It was actually bronze, not gold because the cost of security required if it was gold would be prohibitive. The guy has to wear a Kevlar (heat-proof, flame retardant) jacket and gloves as well as a welding mask to protect him from the intense heat it takes to melt the gold. Next we donned the hard hats and took a trip in a cage down to about 120 feet below the surface and had a tour of an inactive underground mine; the conditions that the miners worked under were incredibly unpleasant – dusty and confined for 8 hours a day with a rather uninviting ‘thunderbox’ as the guide called it, the only convenience. He showed us the equipment they used to use including what is commonly known as an air-leg drill which has a leg filled with compressed air. He got a Polish lady tourist to use it and it was very LOUD and I imagine it vibrated in her hands a lot too. He was a fair dinkum Aussie miner (retired) who spoke very fast in a very outback Aussie way. I don’t think the Polish tourists understood a lot of what he said actually. I think a lot of we Australians found him hard to follow sometimes. He told us on the way down in the cage that it was held by 17 ropes, 16 of which were broken and he did the slip knot in the other one but he said everything with a dead straight face and waited for the reaction. I found him amusing despite his sexist comments occasionally and calling the Polish tourist “lady” all the time and referring to her and her companion as French even though he asked where they were from at the start and knew they were Polish. Hmm, you meet all types around our great country! After the underground tour we had a look at the other displays inside the main building which involved minerals, lots of printed information, interactive displays and videos etc. One video we watched by a prospector made us see how it is so like gambling. He just kept chasing that big find and had to live a fairly Spartan existence to do so. Overall, it was an interesting insight into the mining industry and history in Kalgoorlie-Boulder.
Some interesting facts:
· Western Australia supplies 75% of Australia’s total gold production and about 8% of the world’s gold production.
· It takes seven 220-tonne truckloads of rock to produce a tine two-ounce nugget.
· Nickel which is also mined in the region is used in the production of everyday items such as stainless steel, coins, aeroplanes, car parts, rechargeable batteries & ink.
· The Super Pit comprises more than 3,000km of old underground workings.
· About 85 million tonnes of ore and waste are removed from the Super Pit each year – that’s 232,000 tonnes per day.
· Approximately 30% of the Super Pit work force are women.
· Ore carrying trucks used in the Super Pit are the largest of their type used in Australian gold mining. The new Caterpillar 793C cost $4million and weighs a massive 376 tonnes. They are 6.4 metres high & 7.4 m wide and trave at a top speed of 54.3 kmh carry 220 tonnes of ore in one load and each tyre costs about $26,000 to replace.

And you thought your car running costs were high!

Finally we visited the Garden of Remembrance which has a Chinese style and is designed to celebrate the many cultures that worked together to develop the mining industry in australia. It is a space of contemplation and solitude for those who visit. It seems very new and will be lovely when it becomes established.