We decided to do the tourist thing at Newman and see the Mt Whaleback Mine. Mt Whaleback mine was established in 1968 and is the biggest single-pit open-cut iron ore mine in the world. See the picture above of how it was in 1969 and below what it looks like today.
It is more than five kilometres long and nearly 1.5 kilometres wide. They blast it then excavators scoop up to 70 tonnes of iron ore and load it into haul trucks - which can carry as much as 240 tonnes - to be transported to the primary crusher. The crusher breaks down boulders of up to 1.5 metres in diameter into lumps about the size of a football. It is then transferred to a secondary crusher, where it is broken down into grapefruit-sized lumps.
From there, it is sent to stockpiles ready for loading on to trains, up to a rate of 14,000 tonnes per hour. Waste rock from the mine, which is low in iron content, is retained for use in rehabilitation. It really felt like we were doing a tour of the SEC but it has big haul trucks instead of dredgers.
From there, it is sent to stockpiles ready for loading on to trains, up to a rate of 14,000 tonnes per hour. Waste rock from the mine, which is low in iron content, is retained for use in rehabilitation. It really felt like we were doing a tour of the SEC but it has big haul trucks instead of dredgers.
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