Rio Tinto iron ore min at Tom Price, Western Australia
By Judy Evans
@JudyEv (382555)
Rockingham, Australia
October 18, 2020 7:43pm CST
While in Tom Price we took a tour of Rio Tinto mining operations. It was quite impressive although it was a very quiet day. Sixteen of us travelled in an air-conditioned bus. I f we got out of the bus, we had to wear hard hats and googles. Several times we had to stop to get permission to move to the next section. Permission came from Perth, 1500 km away.
The iron-ore is moved by train, most of which have no drivers and again are controlled from Perth. The trains consist of up to 236 wagons, each having a load capacity of up to 106 tonnes, and may be up to 2.4 kilometres (1.5 mi) long. Fully loaded, they weigh approximately 29,500 tonnes.
Pictured is Vince in front of one of the massive machines. Some of the tyres used on the biggest machines cost $170,000 each.
12 people like this
12 responses
@LindaOHio (222806)
• United States
19 Oct 20
Very interesting. $170,000 for tires? Oh. My. Goodness!
2 people like this
@garymarsh6 (24078)
• United Kingdom
20 Oct 20
Poor Vince pales into insignificance beside these monster pieces of machinery!
1 person likes this
@JudyEv (382555)
• Rockingham, Australia
20 Oct 20
He does indeed. They need ladders just to climb into these monsters.
@jobelbojel (36796)
• Philippines
19 Oct 20
How many sections you have visited? Sounds like you had to pass through many stops for permissions.
@crazyhorseladycx (39503)
• United States
19 Oct 20
that beast blends'n quite well with the landscape despite 'ts massive size. that'd be a whole lot 'f goods bein' moved 'n no doubt most dangerous to be 'round. thank heavens fer a/c, eh?
i jest read where's they'd $6.972 billion net 'ncome showin' from 2019. purty certain they can 'fford those spendy tyres. do wonder though the global 'ffects 'f all their minin'... interestin' such's headquartered out'ta london.
seems they'd be doin' some good though (outside 'f jobs) here'n the u.s. 't their kennecott mine'n utah. fer that i'm grateful.
"Kennecott has transformed acreage once dominated by over-grazed lands, salt evaporation ponds and illegal dumps into a 3,670-acre shorebird and waterfowl reserve along the south shore of Great Salt Lake.
In 1996, we helped to create the Kennecott Inland Sea Shorebird Reserve (ISSR) under a mitigation plan and today, the reserve is one of the largest and most successful mitigations in the United States. The number of bird species using the reserve area has gone from 50 in 1995 to 200 – a 300% increase – and today, approximately 120,000 birds use the reserve every year." per their website
https://www.riotinto.com/operations/us/kennecott.
@DocAndersen (54399)
• United States
19 Oct 20
Rio tinto is a huge company now. they have mines on most of the planet
