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BELOW EARTH DAY
To mark Earth Day, reader AnthonyC - who, like Frollicking Mole, is deeply acquainted with earth-related matters - takes us on a tour of his workplace:
Writes Anthony: “I live in central Queensland, about three hours drive west of Rockhampton. There’s only one product to be mined out here: coal. It’s a pretty small-time open cut operation, only one dragline which is about 3000t, 99m long boom, 45m high (from ground to boom tip), a dig depth of 55m (below ground level) and a 35 cubic metre bucket. To put it in perspective, our current backhoe has about a 32 cubic metre bucket, so the dragline’s actually pretty small. A new dragline is on the way, which is about twice the capacity (65 cubic metre bucket).
“Here’s a photo from on top of the boom. As you can see, there’s not much out here.
“If Catherine Deveny has problems with 4WDs, she’ll most likely have a heart attack about these - all diesel and all guzzling. Not to mention the carpark, nothing but 4WDs, V8 Commodores and Falcons as far as the eye can see; that’s what happens when you give us bogans lots of cash.
“Also note the effects of a presplit blast. This is designed to break dirt away from the wall cleanly; a full-strip blast would take place after a presplit blast is completed. A presplit is small time blasting, a full shot would be anything from 200m to 1.5km long by 60m wide, with holes in about 10m x 10m pattern, drilled to a depth of around 45m. From blasting alone, we produce about 15t of greenhouse gasses every month, and we’re by no means a large operation.
“They don’t make us live underground like the Frollicking Mole, but give us houses at the exorbitant rate of $17 a week, salary sacrificed. I, fortunately enough, live on the edge of the bush. It’s not uncommon to see kangaroos or emus bouncing or running past my house in the mornings and evenings.”
Very neat, anthony! Thanks for sharing.
I can hear Gaia screaming as the weasels rip her flesh! WooHoo!
Posted by Mr. Bingley on 2007 04 22 at 01:27 PM • permalinkThat dragline is a thing of beauty.
Does she have a name ?Posted by Harry Bergeron on 2007 04 22 at 01:35 PM • permalinkNice. Better to live with Emu chicks than Emo chicks.
Some awesome photos there AnthonyC, especially the pre-split blast.
Posted by daddy dave on 2007 04 22 at 02:09 PM • permalinkOut of curiosity, what company runs that mine?
I almost spent part of my childhood in Australia (and wish I had) when my dad was offered a multi-year transfer to a mine there. Sadly, he turned it down. He worked for Peabody Coal Co which I understand still operates in Oz.
When I was seven years old I got to drive a dragline similar to the one shown. (OK, I got to sit in the lap of the guy who was running it and pretend I was in control. When you’re seven there’s not much difference. :)
Nice blast there, Anthony! KA-BOOOOOM!!!!!
Posted by The_Real_JeffS on 2007 04 22 at 02:20 PM • permalinkAnd once again we observe the dire effect of U.S. hegemonism, as good right-driving Antipodeans are compelled by the evil forces of International Capitalism to operate vehicles with the operator’s cab on the wrong side.
I don’t blame Rove, but it dovetails so neatly with the plans for World Domination that it’s certainly incorporated.
Regards,
RicHa! My nephew hangs out here: Fort McMurray
Digging in the sandbox.Cheers
Posted by J.M. Heinrichs on 2007 04 22 at 03:47 PM • permalinkThere should be a t-shirt: I RAPE GAIA.
Posted by Tungsten Monk on 2007 04 22 at 05:24 PM • permalinkWonderful way to mark Earth Day.
My dad was a salesman and sales manager for manufacturers of construction and mining equipment such as Caterpillar and International Harvester, pretty much all his working life.
Some of that stuff is HUGE.I remember visiting his office and seeing a sign on the wall,
“Unemployed and hungry? Eat an environmentalist”.
Yes, yes, Anthony, all very interesting….
...But how do the Emus taste?
Posted by Wimpy Canadian on 2007 04 22 at 07:39 PM • permalinkHey, flcark, peabody is the largest coal company in the world. Trades as BTU on the NY stock exchange.
Posted by Wimpy Canadian on 2007 04 22 at 07:41 PM • permalink#17 Mike_W “Unemployed and hungry? Eat an environmentalist”.
I enjopy this. My slogan is :“Eat vegetarians!”.
Posted by Wimpy Canadian on 2007 04 22 at 07:45 PM • permalinkNice pics, coal mining scares me a bit. Seems to be the sector with the worst incidents. China chews through a lot of coal miners.
Posted by thefrollickingmole on 2007 04 22 at 09:06 PM • permalinkSign I saw on a coal truck in Muswellbrook in the NSW Hunter Valley:
“Stop coal mining in the Hunter, let the bastards freeze in the dark”
(Phatty Adams and his ratbag Greeny Mrs live in the Hunter Valley :-)
Posted by Pedro the Ignorant on 2007 04 22 at 10:29 PM • permalinkWimpy
Cows are vegetarians, no?“Beef: the True Vegetarian Food”
Cheers
Posted by J.M. Heinrichs on 2007 04 22 at 10:30 PM • permalink#3 - Yeah it sounds like victory.
#4 - Its name is “dragline one”. Nothing like Big Muskie
#8 - I’ll just say, not Peabody. They’re (Peabody) still all over the shop out here and are huge in the coal industry, they just acquired Excel Coal. I certainly wouldn’t mind working for them, they seem to have greater opportunities to work overseas than my current employer. As for draglines, I’ve been on about 10 different ones but never gone near the controls. Coal’s worth too much money these days to slow down production for a minute.
#15 - place certainly is hopping. Mackay’s population has boomed with people travelling north to chase work in the coal fields. Everyone knows there’s a shortage of workers, but few seem to realise it’s a skilled worker shortage. If you’ve got no trade or qualifications then you’re just as likely to find work down south as you are up here. Still, it’s a good time to be an engineer.
#19 - Ha, yes. Just us miners doing our bit for the environment.
#20 - Can’t say I’ve eaten emu. Kangaroo on the other hand, a bit stringy but otherwise delicious.
#23 - true, I suppose because if a disaster occurs you’re probably looking at a massive explosion or roof collapse. As I understand it, the biggest coal disasters in Australia, most notably Moura #2 in ‘94, were mainly because of gross negligence. Certainly in the case of Moura #2 gas alarms were ignored and switched off, they had full warning that it was dangerous to work yet they carried on. If anything good came from that disaster it was that permissive behaviour of unsafe acts will now see your neck on the line.
That said accidents can and do happen Sago from only a couple of years ago was found to have been caused by lightning strike. You can barely guard against that. Coal miners know they’re in a dangerous business, and they get duly rewarded for going underground day after day, but I’m yet to meet an underground miner who hasn’t lost a friend or family member in an accident.
That all said I’m in open cut coal and the biggest problem we have is spontaneous combustion. Nothing compared with the troubles of Blair Athol.
#23 and 24 - China does chew through coal miners, with the government quick to point out its the illegal and small operations that have the bad records. We were taught in uni however, that coal mines below a certain size don’t have to report any deaths and don’t get investigated when they do. Big time operations thusly surround themselves with small U/G mines, and if any accident occurs they sell of that part of the mine to the small operation and back date the sale to prior to the accident. Dodgy jobs going on over there.
Needless to say I won’t be moving to China anytime soon.
Emus are extremely stupid birds.
They tend to run extremely quickly and not look where they are going. A few years back, I had one racing my M113 along a fenceline at Tin Can Bay. We slowed up a bit and it overtook us; at which point it looked back at us and ploughed straight into a fence post at about 30mph. Stone dead.
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