Day 149 19th September 2014 Friday. Got up early to do some washing and chores around the van before going on the Super Pit Tour. The tour takes you to what is known as ‘the golden mile’, an area previously with 80 separate mining operations all with their own headframes for drilling underground. The area is now made up of 26,000 hectares of leases and around 260 individual mining leases joined together. The open pit is run by KCGM Kalgoorlie Consolidated Gold Mines and runs 24/7. The pit is 1.55km across and 3.7km long and current plans are that the mine will operate until 2021. There are only 40 mining trucks on site and it was amazing to see them crawling up and down the sides of the mine. They looked no bigger than ants. We went on site to 2 separate lookouts that gave us great views of the operation. We then drove around the operations area and had the gold processing described to us. It was a humungous mine / pit and mum and I thoroughly enjoyed it. It shocked me to learn that for each truck load taken out they only find about 500gms of gold (size of a golf ball) but obviously it must be profitable for them to continue. They employ 800 staff and they all must live locally, no FIFO. After the tour I dropped mum back at the park and went to the Dept Mines to get my Miners Permit $25. This is a prospecting permit for life. After lunch a chap pulled in next to mum and dad and he had just returned from spending a month prospecting near Leonora (Murrin Murrin). We soon got talking or rather he did all the talking. It was interesting listening to him but I soon made my excuses to get away. We then decided to go to Hammond Park which had a range of native animals and birds. It had a miniature Bavarian castle made from local rocks and gems overlooking a pond. There were a couple of peacocks who decided to spread their tails and this was a sight. It was nice to walk around the open spaces across the green grass on such a warm day. It is 29C. We then went to Hannans Boulevard, a shopping complex but it was deserted. From here we headed to Boulder and to Burt Street, the main street and here we saw many old buildings from 1900 that have been renovated or are in the process of being renovated. It was an interesting street. I dropped mum and dad back at the park and headed back to town to the gold detecting shops to further ask questions about which brad – Minelab or Garrett? Packed up all the outside gear when I got back.
