Gallery
Mine Sites (Australia)
The Kalgoorlie Super Pit is a large open-cut surface and underground gold mine in Western Australia. It is located 16 km from the town of Boulder, along the Golden Mile, the area where Paddy Hannan's gold discovery sparked the famous gold rush.
The mine produces approximately 25.5 tonnes of gold annually.
The pit is approximately 3.7 kilometres long, 1.5 kilometres wide and around 600 metres deep - big enough to bury Uluru (Ayers Rock).
The Boddington Mine is a surface gold and copper mine located 13 km northwest of Boddington, Western Australia. The mine is within the Saddleback Greenstone Belt, an Archaean structure in the southwestern Yilgarn craton.
The mine is one of Australia's largest producing gold mines, in the financial year 2018, Boddington produced 22.1 tonnes of gold and 35,000 tonnes of copper.
The Cadia Valley mine is one of Australia's largest gold and copper mining operations. It's located in the Cadia Valley, about 25 kilometers south of Orange, New South Wales.
The site includes the Cadia East underground mine, the Ridgeway underground mine and the Cadia Hill open-cut mine. Cadia East utilizes a large-scale panel caving method and is one of the world's largest gold and copper deposits.
The Newman mine, also known as Mount Whaleback, is a massive iron ore mine located 6 km west of the town of Newman in the Pilbara region of Western Australia. It is one of the world's largest single-pit iron ore mines.
The mine is over 5 km long and 1.5 km wide, with a planned depth of 0.5 km. The mine produces iron ore, with an annual capacity of 85 million tonnes, the iron ore from the mine is transported by rail to Port Hedland for export.
The Newman Operations also process iron ore from other nearby mines like Jimblebar, Yandi, and Mining Area C.
Olympic Dam is located 560 kilometres north of Adelaide, South Australia and is owned by BHP. It measures approximately 600km long by 150km wide.
It is a multi-commodity mine producing copper, gold, silver, and uranium. It is known for being the world's largest uranium deposit and one of the largest copper deposits. The mine's current operational depth is around 860 meters, with ongoing expansion into deeper areas. Within the mine, there are extensive underground tunnels, exceeding 760 km in the Northern Mining Area.
Offshore
The INPEX Ichthys Explorer is a massive, offshore, semi-submersible, central processing facility (CPF) for the Ichthys LNG project, located in the Browse Basin off the North West coast of Western Australia. It is the world's largest semi-submersible platform and plays a crucial role in the initial processing of gas and condensate from the Ichthys field.
Prior to forming Asset Management Technology, we were heavily involved in wrting the software for INPEX to catalogue the CPF Explorer in SAP. This software enabled INPEX to secure its LNG operating license and is still used today.
The INPEX Ichthys Venturer FPSO (Floating Production, Storage and Offloading) is a 336-meter-long ship-shaped facility built by Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering in South Korea, designed to operate for 40 years in the Browse Basin off Western Australia. Permanently moored 3.5 km from the Ichthys CPF, it processes and stores condensate from the Ichthys gas-condensate field, which it then offloads to carriers. Key features include a 1.12 million-barrel condensate storage capacity, permanent mooring with strong anchor chains for cyclonic conditions, and the ability to accommodate up to 200 people.
Iron ore at Dampier port, Western Australia.
Iron ore being loaded onto coveyor belts to ships.
Exports include iron ore, salt, liquefied natural gas, anhydrous ammonia as well as project cargo, break bulk and general cargo.
Port Hedland is a significant coastal town in the Pilbara region of Western Australia, notable as the location of the world's largest bulk export port by tonnage, primarily for iron ore, and a vibrant community of approximately 16,000 people with a strong connection to the resource industry. It includes 15 berths capable of handling large vessels, linked to mines in the Pilbara region like Newman and Mining Area C.
Beyond its industrial importance, Port Hedland is known for attractions like the "Staircase to the Moon" phenomenon during full moon phases between March and October, and its proximity to places like Karijini National Park and Eighty Mile Beach.
Mobile Plant
Mining companies operate massive iron ore trains in the Pilbara region of Western Australia, known for their length and carrying capacity.
These trains typically consist of two rakes, each with 132 cars, and can be over 2.5 kilometers long.
BHP holds the Guinness World Record for the longest and heaviest train, which consisted of four rakes and spanned 7.3 kilometers.
Komatsu 930E, a large electric drive mining truck, which typically costs between $6 and $8 million USD. The truck can haul up to 304 tonnes and weighs in at 521.64 tonnes.The 930E-5 is powered by a Komatsu SSDA16V160 engine, a 16-cylinder diesel engine with 2,700 gross horsepower at 1800 rpm.
It was the first haul truck to utilize two AC electric traction motors, providing advantages in efficiency, operating characteristics, and lower maintenance requirements due to fewer mechanical components.
The Caterpillar 797 is a massive, two-axle, mechanical drive mining truck with impressive specifications, including a gross machine operating weight of up to 623,700 kg for the 797F model, a nominal rated payload of 400 tons and a 20-cylinder Cat C175-20 engine.
It is equipped with 55/80R63 tyres, has a top loaded speed of around 64-68 km/h, and a fuel capacity of 6,813 litres.
Manufactured by Caterpillar Inc. for high-production mining and heavy construction, the 797 series is a prominent and proven workhorse in the industry, particularly for challenging conditions
Bucket-wheel excavators are some of the world's largest continuous mining machines used for removing overburden and extracting materials such as clay, sand, gravel, marl, lignite and hard coal. Known for their immense size and capacity, BWE’s provide efficient excavating solutions for mining projects.
Dumper Truck at the Tom Price iron ore mine in Pilbara, Western Australia.
Tom Price is the highest town above sea level in W.A. and due to the mining boom one of the wealthiest. Huge Dumper trucks transport the iron ore from the blast sight to the processing plant.
The R 9600 is the undisputed leader of the 600-tonne class. This latest generation heavy-duty excavator not only has the highest bucket capacity in its class, but also burns 20% less fuel than its predecessor – the R 996B – thanks to the Liebherr Power Efficiency systems— the patented engine and hydraulic management systems. And with a service life of more than 80,000 hours, this innovative mining solution is definitely an onsite partner for the long term. Especially as the modular design of the R 9600 means that it can be upgraded across its long service life by keeping up with the changing technology in the mining sector.
Mine Sites (Overseas)
The Bingham Canyon Mine, known locally as Kennecott Copper Mine, is an open-pit mining operation extracting primarily copper but also gold, silver and molybdenum. Located to the Southwest of Salt Lake City, Utah, USA, the mine is the largest human-made excavation, and deepest open-pit mine in the world, which is considered to have produced more copper than any other mine in history – more than 17,000,000 tons. The mine is owned by Rio Tinto Group, a British-Australian multinational corporation. The mine has been in production since 1906, and has resulted in the creation of a pit over 1.2 km deep, 4 km wide, and covering 7.7 km2.
The Grasberg mine is one of the largest gold and copper mining clusters on the globe, located in the very remote highlands of the Sudirman mountain range in the province of Papua New Guinea, Indonesia. Grasberg minerals district includes open-pit and underground mines. It has produced 528 billion ounces of copper and 53 million ounces (Moz) of gold, including more than 432 billion ounces of copper and 46Moz of gold from the Grasberg open pit during 1990 to 2019. Freeport McMoran holds a 48.8% interest in the mine while the remainder (51.2%) is held by Indonesia Asahan Aluminium (Inalum).
The Chuquicamata mine, also known as Chuqui, is a massive open-pit copper mine located just outside Calama, in the north of Chile. At 2.85km above sea level. It is one of the world's largest copper mines and has been in operation since 1910. The mine is known for its huge size, reaching depths of approximately 1km in the open pit. It is currently transitioning to an underground operation, an underground mine was developed to access the ore body situated beneath the present open pit mine. The mine is now owned and operated by Codelco, a Chilean state enterprise.
The Diavik Diamond Mine is located in one of the most remote and rugged places in the world - 220 kilometres south of the Arctic Circle and on the bed of a vast northern lake, Lac de Gras. The mine is a joint venture between Rio Tinto (60%) and Dominian Diamond Corporation (40%), and is operated by Yellowknife-based Diavik Diamond Mines Inc., a subsidiary of Rio Tinto Group. Commercial production commenced in 2003, and the lifespan of the mine is expected to be 16 to 22 years. It has become an important part of the regional economy, employing 1,000, producing approximately 7 million carats (1,400 kg) of diamonds annually.
The Garzweiler mine is a massive open-pit lignite (brown coal) mine in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, operated by RWE Power. It's one of Europe's largest, with two main sections: Garzweiler I (operating since around 1940) and Garzweiler II (operational since 2006). The mine is controversial due to its environmental impact, including the displacement of villages and protests against expansion. While the current operating license limits extraction to 2045, the mine is part of a broader German plan to phase out lignite mining, potentially bringing the end date forward.
