Visited a town called Roxby Downs which has been built specifically to house miners.  Called Roxby Downs because the original land owner bought his first batch of beef from Roxburgh in Queensland.   Managed to get ourselves on a trip to the mine, called Olympic Dam, run by BHP Billiton.  The mine is called Olympic Dam because it sits next to the site where the original owner built a dam to collect up winter water and pump up from the great artesian basin.  The way all these people are pumping up the water I’m amazed there is any left.  The annual rainfall in this part of Australia is 250mm/year, evaporation is 1150mm/year. 

The mine is the world’s fourth largest copper deposit, fifth largest gold deposit and the largest known uranium deposit.  They also get silver.  It’s an underground mine at the moment but they are hoping to expand and go to open cast mining.  The dimensions the guide was totting out were, to me, phenomenal.  Although they have had the go ahead they have deferred digging big time for 4 years.  Meanwhile they have started a ‘little’ pit.  This one takes out 30,000 tonnes ore a day, the big one will take out 1,000,000 tons of ore a day.  The mining company has bought six ranches (out here they call them homesteads) so they own the land and the town.  In order to supply town, and mining expansion, with water they are building a desalination plant in Whyalla and piping it up to Roxby Downs and the mine.  If the BHP Billiton continued to mine underground, the copper etc. would last 800 years, if they go open cast it will last 150 years, and it’ll leave a bloody great hole in the ground and a lot of excavated soil.    I know which I’d prefer. 

Here’s some pictures, we weren’t allowed to photograph the mine (why?) but were allowed to take photos of ‘the little pit’.  Filling the excavator truck.

Zoom out a bit

And a bit more (minus the truck)

And a bit more with the truck just coming into the pit.

How about this zoom out

Zoom in