Day 55 - Tennant Creek

03/06/11

After another glorious sunrise at the marbles, we packed up to move on.

Made it to Tennant Creek and booked inot the caravan park for the night.  Time to catch up on washing, recharging batteries and some more schoolwork.  Then we headed off to the main attraction in town - The Battery Hill Mining Centre.  We went on the 3pm tour and our guide Bob was great - an ex miner himself meant he knew his stuff.  Turns out the mine shaft at the centre was never a working mine but was constructed for training purposes.  It was resurrected in 2008 as a tourist attraction.  The tour allows us to see mining equipment from actual mines working.   Turns out the gold and other minerals mined around this area were not found within quartz, but rather within ironstone which made it much harder to extract.

Here Bob demonstrates a jackhammer used to drill blasting holes then Sean is able to pose for a picture.


Here Bob shows us a 3d model of the Warrego Mine 40km out of town (no longer operational) - this littel model shows all the mineral deposits and levels in the 850m deep mine.


Next we were shown a "bogger" machine used to move rack away from a blast area.  Bob tells us they are banned by law after many deaths from being crushed by the 4t machine or losing limbs etc from being caught in the exposed chains etc.  We were given a small demo of this one too and its easy to understand why these guys were paid big money.


Next we had a look at the explosives store (none there anymore), then the crib room.  This is where the shift boss would gather the men whenever a blast was due.  Only the shift boss would detonate after the driller who requested the blast was in the room along with all the men on that level.  A dangerous passtime indeed.  Luckily the toilets are nearby.  Bob explained that some tried to smuggle out the gold in the buckets when they were taken to teh surface to be emptied - it's just a matter of finding the right nugget!

Next we had a demo of a diamond headed saw - apparently the only one of its kind within Australia which still works.  These were used to drill exploratory holes within the mine.  It drills a 3m core of rock 50mm in diameter which is then tested for mineral deposits.  Bob told us after the mine closed one of the shift bosses purchased the drill, mounted it on his ute and hired out to people with new leases to assess their rock (much cheaper than digging a shaft).  After this guy died, the drill was donated to the centre by his widow.

After reaching the surface again the kids had to stick their head in the hole, then back to camp and settle for the night.


The Campbells