DAY 10 Pilbara – Kimberley Trip
TRANS ACCESS ROAD TO KALGOORLIE
We woke to a cool change – couldn’t believe it. After four days of temperature in the forties it felt coldish today yet it was in the thirties.
We continued on the Trans Access Road. It continued to be good. It was interesting to see the care the locals pay to the road as several places were marked to indicate where a hole had subsided in the road. It was interesting to note the change in vegetation. In places it was rich green.
Finally we hit Boulder and saw the sign for the Super Pit Lookout. What an awesome sight! The Kalgoorlie Consolidated Gold Mines or known as the KCGM Super Pit is 3.8 km long and 1.35 km wide and goes down about 500 metres. It shifts 7 million tonnes per month of which 1 million bears gold ore up to grade 2.2gms per tonne.
The Norseman – Wiluna Belt is known as the Greenstone belt and consists of volcanic and sedimentary rocks, intruded by number of doleritic sills. This greenstone is surrounded by extensive granite. These rocks are between 2.9 and 2.6 billion years old. The mine has a totally computer based automated dispatch system so that they know exactly what their mine is doing at any time and information can be accessed remotely. The cost of running the mine is also staggering as a single Face Shovel truck costs $10 million and there are 4 on site, whilst a Mining Truck costs $4 million and there are 31 on site. Alan Bond is responsible for initiating the bringing together of all the leases that were in separate hands for nearly a century. It is now possible to operate a single gigantic and ever descending awesome pit. What a sight and what a vision!!!
As we entered Kalgoorlie on Sunday afternoon everything is shut. We stoped at service station and were able to pick up some information. A local gave us information about caravan parks. So here we are at Prospector’s Caravan Park catching up with writing my diary whilst hubby cleaned the car of bulldust and washing our sheets.
I am sorry that there are no photos but I can't seem to be able to down load them onto the blog. If anyone knows how please email me.
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