Thursday 1st June

Early start today to do The Big Pit Tour. Kev is really looking forward to this 2.5 hour tour which takes tourists to the massive open pit and milling operations. The Super Pit, as it is called, is Australia's largest gold producing mine. We were provided with high viz vests and safety glasses, met our driver and tour guide, and boarded the bus for the trip to the mine, which is located just on the outskirts of the town itself.

We were absolutely amazed by the size of the 793 dump trucks. We travelled along the haul roads with the trucks. We were awe struck at the view of the Super Pit from the viewing area. The sheer size of this pit is almost impossible to comprehend.

Some interesting facts - the tyres on the trucks weigh 5 tonnes, cost $45,000 each and last only 6 months. Work that out with 793 trucks working non stop for 365 days a year. The pit is 3.5 kms wide and more than 600 metres deep.

There are 4 trucks on site worth $18.5 million each, 40 on site worth $4.4 million, 2 on site worth $2.6 million and 1 worth $8 million. Only 1 in 7 trucks caries ore - about a golf ball size of gold (about 500 grams). The remainng 6 trucks will go the waste dumps

Since its discovery, The Golden Mile has produced about 58 million ounces of gold and during the tour we were taken through the milling process of the gold and viewed the Vault where the gold bars are stored ready for shipment.

A great tour with a very informative driver, who himself has once been a miner on the site.