First up this morning we did a tour of the BHP Mt Whaleback mine. Mt Whaleback is the largest single open-cut iron ore mine in the world - currently 5.5 km long and 2 km wide. BHP Billiton Iron Ore has the longest privately owned railroad in the Southern hemisphere - 426 km from Newman to the facilities at Port Hedland. It broke the world's longest train record in 2001 - 7.3km long and consisted of eight locomotives, 682 ore cars, and one driver. An average train is about 3 km long, consisting of four locos, 268 ore cars and one driver and delivers a payload of 42 000 tonnes. The ore carrying trucks are massive too and can carry 240 tonnes. They have tyres that measure 3.5m in diameter and weigh up to 5 tonnes with rims inserted. Each truck has six tyres, two up front and 4 at the back. Each tyre can carry a 60t load. The Mt Whaleback pit is controlled by the integrated remote operations centre in Perth and can track mine machinery to within 10cm of accuracy at all times. It also provides the operators with the weight of the ore carried by each truck, their speed, fuel levels and how the machine is running mechanically. The pit was originally 805 m above sea level, and are currently mining down 135 m. The steps on the side of the pit are called benches and measure 12-15 m in height. The water table starts at bench 18, they are currently mining on bench 30. 46 million litres of water is pumped out of the pit each week and used in other areas of the mine. The mine, and the town of Newman, is powered by a combined cycle power plant consisting of three gas turbine generators, three heat recovery and steam generators, and two steam turbines. It can generate up to 198 megawatts of power.
We were treated to mornos back at the Info Centre after the tour that consisted of tea/coffee and a nice fresh scone with strawberry jam and cream. It was then off to Woolies to restock the food, servo for fuel and the hardware shop for gas. Back home for lunch and an LLD.
Later in the afternoon we went out on the bikes to visit the local aboriginal (Martumili) Art Gallery. Quite a unique style with dots and lines that were not neat at all; looked childlike to our untrained eyes. We finished off with a ride to nowhere in particular, just for a ride. We visited the Lions Animal Park on our way home, where we saw (all behind fences) chooks, goats, pigs, geese, and a lonesome kangaroo. It's run by volunteers and the people in the town donate the food. Great for little kids and big kids.
Back home again to complete the night time routine.
A jolly good day all round.
The tyre store
Water truck - holds 100 000 litres of water and takes up to three hours to empty; used for dust suppression on the mine roads; they have a fleet of five
Ore carrying truck
The pit
The mine processing side
How they change drivers - drive up to the tower, driver gets out, chats with the new driver, new driver gets in and does a few safety checks, then drives off. There are different coloured trucks - most are yellow, however, some are pink (breast cancer), white (domestic violence), blue (mental health), and rainbow (LGQBTI+)
Pink truck in front of a yellow one
Old stuff at the info centre
Murals
Newman bike path system is extensive; built by BHP we guess
Lions animal park
Dinner venue last night
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