Located in Western Australia, the Super Pit mine is also one of the largest and most famous. It brings more than 780,000 ounces of gold annually to its owners, Newmont Mining and Barrick Gold. Super Peet is the largest open pit mine in Australia, with a pit length of about 3,500 meters and a width of about 1,500 meters. The depth of the quarry is also impressive, about 570 meters.
Let's take a closer look at it …
About 550 employees work directly on the territory of the mine, not counting the specialists who serve the transport system of the industrial region. The Super Pit gold mine was discovered at the end of the 19th century, initially, the precious metal was mined in small mines, without the use of any special equipment. In 2001, the mines were merged into a single industrial complex, and by 2009 the construction of the huge mine was fully completed.
Gold mining at the Super Pit mine is not only the largest, but also one of the most difficult in Australia. The thing is that the precious metal in the processed rock is contained in the form of telluride. This mineral cannot be processed by the usual method of purification - cyanidation, therefore a lot of money and effort is spent on its multistage processing and purification of gold from impurities.
Super Pit is mined by open pit mining, loaders and trucks. Over the history of the existence of one of the world's largest mines, more than 295 million cubic meters of rock have been raised from here.
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During the day they work under the scorching sun, at night - in the light of searchlights. In the dark, the mine looks like a film set for a fantastic action movie about the next seizure of the Earth by aliens. Most of the giant machines are owned by Kalgoorlie Consolidated Gold Mines (KCGM). And if in many mines of the world truck drivers work in three shifts, then here in Kalgoorlie they spend 12 hours at the wheel.
Meanwhile, hundreds of tourists who come here from all over the world are watching the tense life of the mine from a special observation deck. The picture is indeed breathtaking: giant trucks with a wheel diameter of two human heights and a driver's cabin located at the height of a four-story building moving through a huge career, from here, from the platform, seem like small toy cars.
Caterpillar 797B, with a gross weight of 623,690 kg, this giant is capable of transporting up to 345 tons of cargo at a time. If we take into account the total weight, then this is the heaviest car in the world. But CAT 797B is remarkable not only for its weight and size. It is the only giant dump truck to use a traditional transmission with a gearbox and a final drive to the wheels. Other giants - Liebherr, Terex, BelAZ - use a diesel-electric transmission to drive the wheels.
Structurally, the 797 is the most ordinary car, perhaps slightly exaggerated. A 117.1 liter diesel engine (no typo here) directs killer torque to a seven-speed hydromechanical planetary gearbox - the largest in the automotive world! And from there, Newton meters are sent to another grandiose engineering structure - the main transmission, where they increase 21 times, taking on truly astronomical values. The end link in this chain is the massive twin rear wheels. The largest tires in the world, mounted on 63-inch rims, were developed by Michelin specifically for this model. Turns the mastodon by rotating the front wheels like a normal car. Only not by muscle power, slightly reinforced by a hydraulic drive, but by hydraulic motors driven from the main internal combustion engine. In case of,if the diesel engine stalls, emergency hydraulic accumulators are provided. With their help, you can make up to three turns of 90 degrees with the engine off. Deceleration is achieved by engine braking and oil-cooled multi-disc brakes.
Only the Liebherr T282B, the largest electric truck in the world, can compete with the CAT 797B for the palm. This giant can carry 363 tons of cargo in its bucket - 18 tons more than Caterpillar. When the dump truck, 14.5 m long and 8.8 m wide, was first shown to the general public at the Munich Building Exhibition in 2004, it was immediately dubbed “the eighth wonder of the world”. Mainly not for its impressive size and formidable appearance, but for the fact that it is able to carry cargo one and a half times its own weight. For this indicator, which characterizes the level of engineering excellence in design, the Liebherr T 282 B beats all other gigantic specimens. The truck's 20-cylinder, 3650-horsepower 90-liter diesel spins an alternator that powers the rear twin-wheel electric motors. Due to the characteristics of the electric transmission, the car accelerates faster, although it has a slightly lower top speed than the CAT 797B. When braking, the motor-wheels work here as generators, saving the resource of the working brakes. As a parking brake, disc brakes on all wheels are used. The steering is hydraulic, roughly the same as Caterpillar.
The BelAZ Company has created the world's largest dump truck BelAZ-75710 with a carrying capacity of 450 tons, which is equivalent to three hundred Ford Focus, 37 double-decker buses or two and a half blue whales. By the way, the Airbus A380 - the largest passenger aircraft in the world - weighs much less, only 277 tons.
If the career giants are in any way inferior to a conventional car, it is in speed. However, they do not need recklessness. On the territory of the quarry, where, in fact, their whole life passes, they move at a permitted speed of 40 km / h. The 797B has a top speed of about 68 km / h, the speed of the Liebherr T 282 B is about 3 km / h less. Managing to turn around in 35–40 minutes and get back under the bucket of no less than a giant mining hydraulic excavator (for example, the Komatsu PC8000 or PC8000-6), a heavily loaded dump truck spends two-thirds of this time getting out of the pit to the surface. These giants spend their entire working life in mines. Under no circumstances can such a truck get there on its own by an ordinary road, because nothing will remain of it. They are delivered to the mines in parts, in containers,and assembled on the spot. Of course, any car - be it the tiny Peel P50, the world's smallest 1962 car, or the giant Liebherr T 282 B - requires constant maintenance. It must be refueled, maintained, repaired. Dozens of trucks, trains or helicopters serve each instance operating in the quarries (as, for example, in some mines in South America, where there is no rail link or appropriate road routes). This is the delivery of fuel, which is poured into giant cisterns located permanently at the mine, and maintenance, and huge workshops - all this together makes up an extremely developed, expensive infrastructure.or the giant Liebherr T 282 B - requires constant maintenance. It must be refueled, maintained, repaired. Dozens of trucks, trains or helicopters serve each instance in the quarries (as, for example, in some mines in South America, where there is no rail link or appropriate road routes). This is the delivery of fuel, which is poured into giant cisterns located permanently at the mine, and maintenance, and huge workshops - all this together constitutes an extremely developed, expensive infrastructure.or the giant Liebherr T 282 B - requires constant maintenance. It must be refueled, maintained, repaired. Dozens of trucks, trains or helicopters serve each instance operating in the quarries (as, for example, in some mines in South America, where there is no rail link or appropriate road routes). This is the delivery of fuel, which is poured into giant cisterns located permanently at the mine, and maintenance, and huge workshops - all this together makes up an extremely developed, expensive infrastructure.where there is no railway connection or appropriate road routes). This is the delivery of fuel, which is poured into giant cisterns located permanently at the mine, and maintenance, and huge workshops - all this together makes up an extremely developed, expensive infrastructure.where there is no railway connection or appropriate road routes). This is the delivery of fuel, which is poured into giant cisterns located permanently at the mine, and maintenance, and huge workshops - all this together makes up an extremely developed, expensive infrastructure.
Each of the giant mechanisms is worth a fortune in itself. The average CAT 797 price, for example, is just under $ 4 million. Accordingly, its maintenance costs, as well as spare parts for it. The price of a 59 / 80R63 XDR tire is about $ 200,000, but if, for example, a motor burns out, it will take about $ 1 million to replace it. The only way these massive machines can recoup their value is if they are running smoothly and trouble-free 7 days a week, 24 hours a day. As soon as the dump truck arrives at the mine, from the very first minute everything is aimed at only one thing - to recoup millions of dollars as soon as possible; every time the giant's body is filled with ore, it works out its cost. I will note right away: with the cost of the dump truck itself in several million dollars, the cost of delivering equipment to the place of work,These giants usually pay for themselves for the development and support of infrastructure faster than other equipment - in less than 12 months! And their size plays a significant role in this. After all, the fewer trips a truck makes, the more ore it can load, the faster it will pay for itself. Transporting 300-360 tons of rock at a time, the giant does an excellent job.
It would seem that one can put an end to this, because all imaginable and inconceivable huge mechanisms have already been invented, exist, work. Does it make sense to continue working in this direction? Where is the ceiling, after reaching which there is no sense in developing new supergiants and it is necessary to look for fundamentally new solutions? How huge a monster can be and is it time to stop? However, authoritative experts say: “The ceiling has not yet been reached and will not be reached in the near future. The fact is that with the current pace of development of mechanization, new promising technologies, further improvement of motors, with the constant development and increase in the level of modern electronics, the creation of new supergiants is quite realistic, and most importantly - economically justified."