On the road to Tom Price
I have taken the long way via Paraburdoo because of the sealed road, not knowing how good the dirt road was.
Coming into Paraburdoo
The powered site came into its own this morning, also for a little while last night when the wind got fresher and chillier. Lucky me, I have an electric heater stowed away and with power available I used it to keep the operating temperature inside my van at a more comfortable level. It was a cold night! This morning I am giving breakfast a miss (for the moment) as I want to make an appearance at the visitors Centre to make a booking for this morning's Mine Tour and have breakfast while I wait for the bus to arrive at 10.00 am.
Yes, there are still a few spots available to be taken up for this morning's tour. I make my booking and then make a coffee and some toast at my van in the parking lot after picking up the mandatory helmet and goggles that will have to be worn at the Mine.
A whole bus load of peole are waiting as the bus pulls in, right on-time. The driver, Bob, (no, not Bob-the-builder but Bob-the-bus-driver) seems quite a jolly fellow with plenty of funny remarks: "…the town of Tom Price was setup in the mid sixties to accommodate the workers for the Mine, mostly single men that were housed in small apartment-like housing down the (then) main street of the town, the local pub just across the road. In those days Tom Price was referred to "as a Drinking-town with a Mining problem". The wealth of this town is derrived from iron ore. Mind you, we also have a Gold Mine, its also called the local Service Station or Petrol Station…."
Having done the Tour I am beginning to realise just how gigantic this operation is, with several trains every 24 hours leaving for Dampier (not Port Hedland) to be shipped overseas. Each trainload consisting of 230 carriages, a 3.5 kilometres long train, each train worth about 5 million Dollars. The demand for this high-quality ore far outstripping the supply.
Just look at the size of those tyres...
A view from the top. The bottom of the mine is not visible
The ore is carefully blended to an iron content of about 64%. Any ore that has an iron content of less than 50% is discarded as waste. Wow! I wonder how many countries would just love that waste and turn it into perfectly good steel!! During my time when I worked at a steel mill in Germany, our iron ore contained only around 36% iron…
All of it is mined in open-cut mining with giant loaders moving the material from the mine face to the relevant places within the mine. Each of the loaders can carry in excess of 300 tons, uses almost 5000 litres of Diesel every 24 hours. Each of the 4 tyres are more than 3 metres tall and cost around (wait for it) around $100,000.00. That is just for the tyres! Anyway, just a few bits of data I remember. It was enjoyable.
I leave Tom Price about 1.00pm to head for the Karijini National Park. Great views of an ever-changing landscape, again mountains of various sizes, shapes and colours on the way, prompting me to stop at several places to take a few pictures.
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