As I mentioned in my last post the main reason for the halt at Kalgoorlie was for an Off-Train Experience entitled "Paddy Hannan's Ounce of Luck, Tales from the Golden Mile". Unfortunately, because the Indian Pacific was late in arriving the programme was heavily contracted and resulted in mildly amusing chaos where in the end for me the highlight was an opportunity to get 'close up and personal' with some Big CATs?!
The Experience began with a short coach tour through the centre of Kalgoorlie enroute to Hannan's North Tourist Mine where we were due to see a short play performed by local artists highlighting the tales of the Golden Mile and the Kalgoorlie gold rush. The play mysteriously transformed into some story telling by an Aborigine elder and his son. With only 10 minutes available the story lost much of its mystery and emotion which was a great shame but we did get a rendition of an Aborigine folk song accompanied by his son playing the Digeridoo.
We were then ushered out of the hall and told that we had 15 minutes to have a look at the two monster CAT (Caterpillar) machines shown in the photos and visit the Gift Shop before boarding the bus for our visit to the Super Pit.
The Haul Truck and the Bulldozer (Known locally as the Wheel Loader) are used to transport rock from the bottom of the Pit up to the ore crushing and refining facilities at the 'surface'. If you haven't had a look at the photo links in my last post let me give you some idea of the dimensions of the Super Pit. This link shows an aerial view of the Pit: https://www.ice.org.uk/what-is-civil-engineering/infrastructure-projects/kalgoorlie-super-pit
The following description has been created from this website. The Kalgoorlie Super Pit is a gold mine also known as the Fimiston open pit. It's a rectangular open pit mine approximately 3.5km long, 1.5km wide and 600m deep and is big enough to be seen from space.
The Super Pit was the biggest open gold mine in Australia until 2016, when it was surpassed by the Boddington mine, also in western Australia.
The first gold strike in Kalgoorlie was in 1893. It was followed by the development of many small mines – some of which struggled to make money. All the mines on the site were eventually bought out by Kalgoorlie Consolidated Gold Mines (KCGM) in 1989 – creating the Super Pit.
The Super Pit produces around 800,000 ounces of gold a year – around 8% of Australia's total gold output.
The area - known as the Golden Mile - has produced approximately 58m ounces of gold since the first strike by prospector Paddy Hannan in 1893.
The Golden Mile was the fifth largest gold producing region in the world in 2014. Australia is currently the second biggest gold producer in the world – China is the first.
We were told that the plan over the next year is to expand the size of the pit. The whole hill on which the Lookout currently sits is to be excavated with the result that many businesses on the entry road will also be bulldozed as part of this expansion.
The Super Pit is credited with making a major contribution to the local economy. It employs over 1,100 people and around 30% of the mine's suppliers are companies in the Kalgoorlie area.
The structure is also a leading tourist attraction, with thousands of visitors every year – bringing revenue to the area.
Mining engineers working at the Kalgoorlie Super Pit face unique challenges. The mine is on top of a network of more than 3,500km of historical workings, stretching 1,200m below the surface.
The historical workings are known as voids – no other open pit in the world has so many. All of them need to be navigated safely for the mine to produce gold.
Engineers use historical plans and drilling data as well as laser technology to check for voids beneath the surface.
You can read more on this link about how the gold is mined and processed: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Super_Pit_gold_mine
The Caterpillar 'Haul Truck' on display is an old 793C version. It could haul 240 tons of gold bearing rock and nickel from the bottom of the pit at a time. The latest 797 version, now in use can carry 400 tons!! Each truck can cost up to $5,000,000 or so I read?! The bucket on the 'Wheel Loader' can handle 45tons of rock ore at a time, taking 5 or so passes to fill one of the Haul Trucks. Again, the newer versions can handle bigger payloads and raise the buckets to higher levels.
Eventually we got bussed up to the Super Pit Lookout but for some reason the Mine Authorities had switched off the lighting at the Look Out – hardly surprising since it was 10.30pm by the time we arrived. Too late and too dangerous for us to get out of the coach so we all but briefly saw the glimmer of the Haul Truck lights as they wound their way up the pit. We were told that women are the preferred drivers of these giant trucks because they are less impulsive.
On the drive back to the train through a deserted and almost ghost like Kalgoorlie our lady driver explained that prior to Covid the town had thrived not only because of the mine but the tourists visiting the Super Pit Look Out and Hannan's North Tourist Mine. Many of the local hotels, pubs, bars and shops had closed during the Covid lock down and proprietors had moved away. The town is only now slowly recovering.
So came to end a slightly chaotic experience as we re-boarded the Indian Pacific at 11.00pm and were swiftly on our way into the night and commencing our crossing of the Nullarbor Plain.
