Today we got up early in the morning and I made some breakfast. After breakfast we got dressed in long sleeved T-shirts and long pants for the mine tour. Then we went puttied and packed up the caravan. After that we hopped into the car and drove around Newman. We found the Masonic lodge and Dad took a photo. Then we drove to the top of the hill and Dad took some more photos. After a lot of photos we drove back into Newman and headed for the visitors centre. There we got decked out in safety goggles, a hardhat and a high vis vest. Then the tour bus arrived and we climbed aboard.
The tour guide gave us some background history about the mine and told us about the big Haul Truck that was standing in the front garden of the visitor centre. Then we drove off to the Mount Whaleback mine. It got named that because, before mining started, the arial image of that mountain resembled the back of a Humpback Whale.
Once inside the mine we drove to the lookout area. It was the oldest part of the mine and had some of the machinery on display there. There was half of the crushing part of the crusher. There were also some pump pulleys and some old shovels that used to go on the front of the big earth movers. One of the tyres from the trucks had been placed there to sow you the actual size of these monster tyres. They were 3 metres in diameter and weight 2 or 3 tons without rims. With the rims the total weight of the tyre was 6983 kilograms. Thats nearly 7 tons!
After a bit I moved to the binoculars that were there. I looked through them and was amazed to find that I could watch the expression on the operator's face in the big earth moving machine! The mine is the biggest single pit open cut mine in the world and is 5 km long and nearly 2 km wide. The big earth moving machine was on the other side of the mine and looked like a minute model without the binoculars.
Then the tour guide called us all in and we listened to a talk about the different operations in the mine and why the ground had holes in it on some of the levels. The reason for this is that they put these 17 metre deep holes in the ground is for blasting. Once the drilling rig has finished drilling the explosive truck comes along and stuffs the holes full of a type of explosive that is made from diesel and some other type of non dangerous explosive. Then they clear a kilometre radius and blast. We didn't get to see a blast because we within the 1 kilometre exclusion zone.
After that the tour guide led us to a pile of rock where we got ziplock bags and could chose any rocks that we wanted and put them in our ziplock backs. We got some of the high grade iron ore and a really heavy rock that should only have weighed 1 kilo. After that we piled back onto the bus and drove back to the visitor centre. At the visitor centre we handed in purr safety gear and we drove off back to the caravan. When we arrived we hooked on the caravan and drove off.
After an hours driving we stopped to have lunch. After a very quick lunch kept driving. On and on we drove until it felt like it was next year. Finally we reached Mekatharra where we stopped for fuel and stretched our legs. Then we kept driving until we reached Cue. Cue is a nice little town but the caravan park didn't have anymore powered sites so we drove a further 80 km to a rest area called The Granites. It's 5 km out of Mount Magnet and we were there all by ourselves.
Once we found the turnoff we backed in and then we went inside to write my blog. Pretty soon Mum told us dinner was ready so we took a break. Dinner was Beef Stroganoff with noodles. After dinner we had dessert. Dessert was some Paw-Paw. After dessert I finished writing my blog and went to bed.
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