Newman, Western Australia, AustraliaTuesday 1st September 2020: Today we are driving from Port Hedland to Newman – 437 kms - as we have a tour booked on Wednesday of the BHP Mt Whaleback Iron Ore Mine. They did tell us in Hedland that 360 trucks came in there daily from smaller mines that weren’t on the rail line and I think we passed all of them today and they are decidedly long. We have seen every type of landscape today, but the most spectacular was as we left the Auski Roadhouse after we had a late lunch. As you wind your way through the hills the rock formations are amazing – I hope the photos will do the talking. Besides the trucks there are four oversized loads going to Hedland.
The caravan park at Newman is closed and the Visitors Centre gives you 3 options – we take the oval that has power, toilets and showers for $20 a night.
Newman is the largest town in the Pilbara with a population of about 5,000 and around 4000 miners use the town on a FIFO basis. The town accommodates and exists to service BHP’s Mount Whaleback and Orebody29 mines. Surprisingly there are a good number of aboriginals around town seeing it is a mining town.
Wednesday 2nd September 2020: We are at the Visitors Centre at 8.45 ready for the tour – there is a 200 tonne Haulpack sitting out the front as a landmark. Greg, a New Zealander, is our driver and Ashleigh our guide. Mount Whaleback is just 6 km from town and is the largest open pit mine in the world measuring 1.5 km wide and 5 km’s long and is expected to reach a depth of 500 metres – the camera doesn’t show the perspective, it is just so far down to the bottom of the pit, the huge haulpacks look like tonka toys. Apparently there are more female drivers than men and they are preferred as they are gentler on the machines.
We see the huge crushers, reclaimers and conveyor belts that load the trains. It is a great tour and we are fed so many facts and figures, I might just dot point some of them.
· BHP owns the rail line from here to Port Hedland a distance of 426 km
· Average train measures 2.9 km
· Each tyre on the haulpacks costs $40,000 and lasts between 9-12 months
· 40- 50 haulpacks working 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, except for maintenance shut-downs.
· The Integrated Remote Operations Centre controls all the mining at Mt Whaleback pit -this is a GPS system that tracks all machinery to within 10cm of accuracy at all times.
· Each step on the side of the pit is called a bench
· The water table is at bench 18 and they are currently mining at bench 30, so
· 46 million litres of water is pumped out of the pit each week and is used in the beneficiation plant, water carts and drill rigs. It is also used at the golf club, enabling them to have grassed fairways.
On our return to the Visitors Centre we are given coffee, scones, jam and cream and then we check out the two shopping malls – a good Woolworths and IGA, which has a huge DOME as part of the centre. Some good green areas around town and a couple of lookouts.
Stan and Ella Hilditch have a huge memorial on a hill - they found the first iron ore in 1957, but at that stage there was an embargo on exporting iron ore and so it wasn't until 1967 that mining start with the first export in 1969.
pamandpete
2020-09-03
That drive from the Auski to Newman is spectacular. Did you go into the Lookout around the cutting I think? That is really lovely. We also did the Mount Whaleback tour some years ago and found it really interesting. You managed to jot down a good number of facts. See you in another 10 days or so it seems.
dorothystokes
2020-09-04
No Pam we didn't go into the Lookout - I said to John, how could it get better than what we were already seeing. John says I need to admit to you that they did give us a fact sheet - I did feel that I didn't do the process justice, but it is very complicated and there's so much information given. See you soon, but we're still not in a hurry.
dorothystokes
2020-09-04
No Pam we didn't go into the Lookout - I said to John, how could it get better than what we were already seeing. John says I need to admit to you that they did give us a fact sheet - I did feel that I didn't do the process justice, but it is very complicated and there's so much information given. See you soon, but we're still not in a hurry.
Yvonne and Peter Fahl
2020-09-05
This "report" is amazing, did enjoy reading and viewing photos! Geoff is frequently at Newman for the phones, and Ashley has had an office/base there for ages, but now about to close it down and work out of the Karathara office. His techs. work Mines around Newman down to Meekatharra. Great trip you are having, xxxx
Margaret Duder
2020-09-05
Great info. Stay safe