Australia Mining

To traveling to places like this in nw western australia

We are heading to work 2000km away

Kym is playing around on her D10 dozer

We also operate raise bore drilling rigs

There is also the training

There is a very serious side to the mining industry.

Let's get out of here

The Story of Minerals in Australia

In Australia, minerals have been part of the continent's culture and development since man's first appearance. Minerals were used to colour paints in ancient rock art which is an integral part of Aboriginal heritage. Minerals began to be produced in Australia in large quantities from the early days of European settlement at Sydney Cove. Within ten years of the First Fleet arriving in 1788, coal was discovered near Newcastle in New South Wales and later to the south and west of the settlement. These areas provided fuel for heating and cooking, and later steam locomotion in the young colony of New South Wales. The first metal mined in Australia was lead at Glen Osmond in South Australia in 1841. The young colony was quick to start exporting agricultural products but by 1850 exports of copper and lead from South Australia earned more than Australia's exports of wool and wheat.

The goldrushes of the 1850s made the Australian colonies world famous for mining. Gold was first discovered in New South Wales in 1823 by a public official named James McBrien while he was on a survey mission in hills near the Fish River east of Bathurst. The gold was sparse and McBrien's record of his find was forgotten. Other traces of gold were found in the following decades in New South Wales and in Victoria. Edward Hammond Hargraves had returned to Australia from the Californian goldrushes and guided by a publican's son, John Hardman Australia Lister, he had ridden to Lewis Ponds Creek, near Bathurst. Here he washed sand and gravel in a borrowed tin dish and of the six dishes he washed, all but one yielded a grain of gold. Hargraves' efforts to publicise his find started the first goldrushes and others followed in Victoria, particularly at Ballarat and Bendigo. With news of the rushes, people began to emigrate to the Australian colonies and growing population enabled increased agricultural and industrial development. By the 1850s, Australia was producing almost 40 per cent of the world's gold.

Raise borer

A raise borer is a machine used in underground mining, to excavate a circular hole between two levels of a mine without the use of explosives.

The raise borer is set up on the upper level of the two levels to be connected, on an evenly laid platform (typically a concrete pad). A small-diameter hole (pilot hole) is drilled to the level required; the diameter of this hole is typically 230mm - 445mm (9" - 17.5"), large enough to accommodate the drill string. Once the drill has broken into the opening on the target level, the bit is removed and a reamer head, of the required diameter of the excavation, is attached to the drill string and raised back towards the machine. The drill cuttings from the reamer head fall to the floor of the lower level. The finished raise has smooth walls and may not require rock bolting or other forms of ground support.[1]

The boxhole borer (or machine roger) is a variant of a raise borer that is used when there is not enough space on the higher of the two levels to be connected. The boxhole borer is set up on the lower level, drills a pilot hole as a guide, then drives the reamer bit along the pilot hole from the lower level to the upper. Precautions have to be taken to redirect falling drill cuttings away from the machine, and to reinforce the drill string.

Handy mining websites

Home Sweet Home With My ABSOLUTELY lovely Wife Kym

I dedicate this website to my wife kym for all her hard work in the mining industry & at home. Thank you kym.

I work for Glencore.

Glencore is one of the world’s largest global diversified natural resource companies. Our global network comprises more than 90 offices located in over 50 countries, plus we have over 150 mining and metallurgical sites, offshore oil production assets, farms and agricultural facilities.

We employ approximately 190,000 people and it’s these people that we value above all else. They are our greatest asset.

Our strategy is to maintain and build upon our position as a leading integrated producer and marketer of commodities worldwide.

Q:

How Is Gold Mined in Australia?

A:

Gold is mined in Australia using various methods, including an underground method.

How to Process Gold Ore
- Another technique called open pit mining is conducted at the Fimiston Pit or Super Pit, run by Kalgoorie Consolidated Gold Mines. With this method, waste rock is removed and taken to another location, revealing the gold ore underneath. The exposed gold is then mined.
  
  Sub-level extraction is another technique used in Australia by the Newcrest company. In method, ore is mined from the top down using the drill and blast method. This allows for the rock to cave in as operations head deeper into the ground.
  - Following extraction, the gold is processed using a variety of steps. The material can be pulverized and then exposed to lime, cyanide and other chemicals for purification. It can also be processed using a technique called flotation, in which gold ore powder is separated from other minerals by being placed in a liquid. The materials separate from one another since some sink and others will float in the liquid. After further processing, gold doré, or bars, are made.
Gold is mined in Australia using various methods, including an underground method. According to mining company Citigold, this process involves accessing the gold using two downward angled tunnels or declines five meters long and five meters high, allowing for the mining equipment to fit through it. Then contemporary drill and blast techniques are used. Equipment with single or double drill booms drill holes into the gold ore. Explosives are then placed in them, which blast through the rock. The rock is then carried toward the surface using loading machines.
- The rock is next placed on trucks that carry it to the surface. Gold-bearing ore is then treated with various chemicals at a plant and transported via city-approved roads to another plant for extraction of the gold. Using this blast technique, an extensive and complicated network of tunnels is created by which the gold ore is removed from the earth.

In February 1923, John Campbell Miles was travelling across the dry, hot Gulf Savannah not far from the deserted copper fields of Cloncurry, en route to the Northern Territory. Intrigued by what appeared to be mineralised outcrops by the banks of the Leichhardt River, Campbell Miles—armed only with a horse shoeing hammer—hacked off some of the dark coloured, unusually heavy stone and sent the samples off to the Government assayer in Cloncurry. They were found to contain as much as 78 per cent lead-silver. Campbell Miles’s curiosity had paid off. The sometime-prospector had happened upon one of the richest known zinc-lead seams in the world.

Over the next two months, Miles pegged out the “Racecourse” lease in the area surrounding the outcrops, the larger of which he dubbed Mount Isa, laying claim to 42 acres of land that would become one of the most productive single mines in world history.

On 19 January 1924, Mount Isa Mines Ltd was established. It was Australia’s most distant mine from sea port or coal field.

This isolation fostered a strong sense of loyalty and a deep camaraderie among the first settlers of Mount Isa. In sickness or celebration, triumph or tragedy, the people of Mount Isa stood together.

In 1927, Dr George Simpson accompanied a Qantas flight to transport an injured Mount Isa miner to the hospital in Cloncurry. The dramatic rescue illustrated the dangers and struggles faced by the pioneers of the outback who didn’t have sufficient access to medical care, and clearly demonstrated the need for an urgent response medical service that could access these remote regions of the west. This event stands as the catalyst for the establishment of the Australian Inland Mission’s Aerial Medical Service in 1928, now the iconic Royal Flying Doctor Service.

As the population of Mount Isa boomed, the lack of accommodation and basic services became desperate. The Queensland Government was reluctant to invest state funds, questioning the permanency of the new mining town and adopting a “wait and see” policy when the community petitioned for a school building, post office and other essential infrastructure.

Fortunately, Mount Isa Mines stepped into the role of surrogate local authority, succeeding where both the Cloncurry Council and the Queensland Government had failed by securing an excellent water supply for the township by daming the Leichardt River and creating Lake Moondarra; by enticing city doctors to the community and committing funds to the provision of local facilities.

To jump start the stalling progress of the Mount Isa to Duchess railway line—something the mining town so desperately needed—Mount Isa Mines entered into an agreement with the State Government to guarantee against any operating losses incurred during the new railway line’s first decade of operation; a promise worth an astronomical 100,000 pounds. The line was officially opened by the Attorney General for Queensland, John Mullan, on 6 April 1929, and went on to become the most profitable rail line in the state. The freight rates paid by Mount Isa Mines provided the government with the capital required to carry out the much needed repair and maintenance of rail lines across Queensland.

The first steam train rolls into Mount Isa on the newly built Duchess to Isa railway line on 6 April, 1929

The region weathered the Great Depression remarkably well. The mine provided consistent work for a thousand men throughout the 1930s while a quarter of the male population in major cities was plunged into unemployment and poverty. By the late 1940s, workers at Mount Isa Mines could earn up to three times the average wage of men in Brisbane or Melbourne.

During the mine’s early years, the company focused on zinc-lead-silver production with only a brief period of copper production in the 30s and 40s to contribute to the nation’s World War II effort. Parallel production of zinc-lead-silver and copper did not begin until 1953.

An early underground mine drilling crew, circa 1950

The commodity expansion in the early 50s saw another influx of people settling in Mount Isa. Many were post-war immigrants and for them, Mount Isa became a beacon of hope; an opportunity to rebuild a world away from their war-ravaged European homelands. With the pioneering spirit required to make the most of the opportunities the growing mining company presented, these new additions to Mount Isa’s mining fraternity were welcomed with open arms. Their legacy can still be seen in Mount Isa’s rich and culturally diverse community today.

By 1955, Mount Isa Mines had become the largest mining company in Australia. It had weathered technical and financial difficulties and industrial unrest to become Australia’s largest single creator of export income.

Development of copper orebodies and improvements at the company’s Townsville refinery between 1969 and 1974 boosted copper production dramatically. In the following years, many new technologies were developed on site which revolutionised mining and smelting processes all over the world. In the late 90s, close to $1 billion was invested in various projects, including the expansion of the copper smelter and Townsville Refinery.

Glencore acquired Mount Isa Mines in May 2013 and today provides jobs for more than 20 per cent of the total population of the city of Mount Isa. Mount Isa Mines has left an indelible footprint on the region, and we are proud to continue to develop our people and assets to their fullest pot

Our people play a vital role in helping us achieve our strategy.

Read our stories

MOUNT ISA 90 YEARS STRONG LOGO

The region weathered the Great Depression remarkably well. The mine provided consistent work for a thousand men throughout the 1930s while a quarter of the male population in major cities was plunged into unemployment and poverty. By the late 1940s, workers at Mount Isa Mines could earn up to three times the average wage of men in Brisbane or Melbourne.

During the mine’s early years, the company focused on zinc-lead-silver production with only a brief period of copper production in the 30s and 40s to contribute to the nation’s World War II effort. Parallel production of zinc-lead-silver and copper did not begin until 1953.

The commodity expansion in the early 50s saw another influx of people settling in Mount Isa. Many were post-war immigrants and for them, Mount Isa became a beacon of hope; an opportunity to rebuild a world away from their war-ravaged European homelands. With the pioneering spirit required to make the most of the opportunities the growing mining company presented, these new additions to Mount Isa’s mining fraternity were welcomed with open arms. Their legacy can still be seen in Mount Isa’s rich and culturally diverse community today.

By 1955, Mount Isa Mines had become the largest mining company in Australia. It had weathered technical and financial difficulties and industrial unrest to become Australia’s largest single creator of export income.

Development of copper orebodies and improvements at the company’s Townsville refinery between 1969 and 1974 boosted copper production dramatically. In the following years, many new technologies were developed on site which revolutionised mining and smelting processes all over the world. In the late 90s, close to $1 billion was invested in various projects, including the expansion of the copper smelter and Townsville Refinery.

Glencore acquired Mount Isa Mines in May 2013 and today provides jobs for more than 20 per cent of the total population of the city of Mount Isa. Mount Isa Mines has left an indelible footprint on the region, and we are proud to continue to develop our people and assets to their fullest potential.