Another Day, Another Dollar...

Handlebar Hill Open Cut Mine

Here we are again, my calendar informs me it's Friday. I think my body subconsciously knew anyway as I had told myself all day I would have an early night and no beer, but it's 8:50, although I only had 2 beers... And they were light, that counts right? First time in my life I purchased light beer was out here, in fact, the only beer I have drunk has been light. Started off with XXXX Gold, as I knew it was cheap (nasty stuff though) and now I have worked out that Pure Blond Naked is the same price. $2 for a tinny is not a bad deal if you ask me.

Starting to really get into the swing of things this week. Worked in a few different areas seeing many different things, one day I was in the Dieci hanging cables for a Tele-Remote site (Tele-Remote is a remote operated vehicle from small donga located not to far from the working site, controlled by radio waves), the next I was installing antennas on Trucks, and the last few days I have been doing Preventive Maintenance checks (or P.M's) on Loaders. This has been interesting as I am getting a solid understanding of the entire system.

There has been a few highlights in my week, one day we went up the back of the mine (above ground) and visited a container which houses the repeaters for the haulage road and Handlebar Open Pit. This was great as it gave me a really good view of how big the pit it, and the entire GFM site. Handlebar is set for expansion, apparently to 8 times it's current size, trust me, it's huge already, 8 times bigger is going to be something else entirely. And let's not forget that they are digging a huge hole right over the top of an underground mine, which I am in might I add. Scary stuff really, some real smart cookie has worked this one out for sure.

On Wednesday I did a some driving underground by myself. I have driven a bit with others in the car, by myself was scary, afraid I would get lost mainly. However, I did alright. No accidents and no wrong turns. Driving UG is very different from any other sort of driving. It's quite normal to come round the corner and be confronted by a loader coming the other way. Let me tell you, seeing one of these 60 tonne machine coming at you with the teeth on the bucket being the first thing you see, it makes me very nervous. As quick as you can you get the Toyota into reverse and start looking for a cut in, or a pass you can duck into and let it past. Sometimes this means a hundred metres or so, up or downhill, in a corkscrew fashion. If you can't reverse, don't work underground!

A jumbo being serviced.

As it would happen, on one of my solo trips, whilst waiting in a cut in for a truck, things got very real. "Emergency, Emergency, Emergency" 3 words (or one word repeated 3 times I suppose) you don't really want to hear when you are underground. We were told to relocate to our nearest safe areas. These range from some of the crib rooms or Emergency Refuge Bays which are located all around the mine. Basically a safe area that is very structurally intact, contains radios, phones, water, oxygen etc. Luckily for me, I wasn't to far from the surface so I got straight out. Turns out one of the trucks had a tyre fire. Fire is very dangerous underground, due to all the gases in the air etc a small fire can get big very quickly. Other than the radio call they alert personal using the P.E.D system (Personal Emergency Device) which is part of your cap lamp. It starts beeping, your lamp starts flashing and it shows the words Emergency Emergency Emergency. They also release "Stench Gas" into the mine. This used to be a gas that smelt of rotten eggs, due to people mistaking other smells and gases for this it is now Eucalyptus smelling. It's strong though, and very quickly penetrates the mines, and it stands out strongly.

So yes, I evacuated, and I believe the problem was sorted, no dramas or injury's. I then spent 3 hours on surface doing bugger all waiting for all clears to go back down. The main problem here was my crib was underground in 10L, and I was above ground, and I was hungry. Eventually though I got back underground, had my crib, and the day went on.

So yes, Friday is almost at a close, just need to get through this weekend and I will be on the downhill run. It has been a good week, got "some" tools, makes it a bit easier to do things. Had a few good chats with my boss and got certain things sorted out, makes it easier to when I know what's going on. Nothing worse than everything being up in the air. Really enjoying the time spent with the guys here, for the most part they are a great crew, and I am learning lots, and I think I am also teaching them a few things which is nice. Some people seem to do nothing but complain out here, and yes, that's very easy to do. But when I break it all down and look at what I am doing there is no real reason to complain. The work isn't "hard", the pay is ridiculously good, and at the end of each day I get a decent meal (it's not home cooking but it certainly isn't take away) and a beer or two with some good company. I came out here with a goal and a purpose, and whilst I am here for that I will try to make the most of it. Of course your going to hate it every day if you tell yourself that. Here's hoping that in 6 months time I'm still going strong.

Yesterday's Ore Targets are as follows:

• South Side - Goal of 2815 tonnes, reached 3400 tonnes
• North Side - Goal of 5182 tonnes, reached 5200 tonnes
• All's I can say is that's alot of rock!

4 Down, 10 to Go

Another day dusted, literally, there is dust everywhere out here. I found a brand new pair of leather boots in the container today, (we have 4 large shipping containers, one is fitted out as our main "office" with computers, aircon etc, all powered by solar and a generator as they didn't run lines in, the other 3 are parts storage), they were nice Bloodstone ones that are steelcap, but water proof. Instead of laces etc it has a velcro flap you undo which opens the shoe wide enough to get your foot in, but its all sealed. Anyway, after claiming them as they were my size, I wore them. A lot more comfy then the gum boots, let me tell you. Back to my point, this afternoon, they weren't new anymore. Absolutely filthy and dirty from all the dust and mud around. And I didn't even go underground today!

Still slowly finding my feet. Assisted Michael yesterday and today (Michael is ex Aviation like myself, however he is a 7yr Uni Engineer, as opposed to my 4yr Trade, he designs it, I curse him when nothing fits) with building a unit that could remotely control two barricade setups with warning lamps to be used when we have Remote Loaders side loading Trucks in certain areas. This is meant to stop people going in and getting killed. Sure enough there will be people stupid enough to do it anyway, but hey, apparently that's normal out here. Michael wanted to the program (which he coded himself) to also be able to show if a light was busted. After wiring it up initially, and finding it didn't work, I sat down and went through the schematics and re-engineered it do what he needed. Pretty basic stuff, but as I don't know the equipment etc I was pretty happy with myself once we got it sorted and it worked well. A few of the guys were pretty impressed with my wiring style as well, due to it being a lot more "presentable" (and I believe function-able) than the standard normally used around here. Hopefully down the track I can introduce them to some more Aviation techniques that will hopefully make things last a bit longer in this environment. Although as I saw this afternoon, when a loader runs over a steel electrical cabinet, it doesn't matter how its wired. It's still a pancake!

After we got that sorted I spent the day troubleshooting and repairing some MineGem systems, learning more about there web interface and diagnostic tools, and then we wrote a program to use data supplied from some serial 232 G-sensors we had picked up. We fitted these to a spare 232 port in one of the MineGem units and have now got it installed on two loaders. Pretty impressive stuff really, these things are extremely sensitive and we had to turn them right down, but now we have a nice visual representation of the forces on the loader. The cards are about half the size of a credit card, and the program only took a few hours to write and nut out. I think I am going to have to learn some coding as a couple of these guys are very switched on with this sort of stuff and I was struggling in some places to keep up. The whole idea behind this by the way was about 2 weeks ago a loader got stuck. After everyone looking at it for about an hour and not being able to figure out how to move it etc, someone went to check on it. It was upside down. It had rolled and apparently "no-one" had noticed.

Other than that, we saw a pretty impressive dust devil, I finally got my own uniforms, and tonight was Seafood night which was quite tasty. Not bad for a Saturday really.

• On average the loader can carry between 13-15 tonnes of rock/ore in a single scoop.
• 26% of visitors to this site are using Internet Explorer. Here is the link to Firefox.

Found this video of a Mucker loading a Truck

I've Stopped Counting Days....

Well here I am, back in the Mighty Isa. Things sure do seem "normal" now. Very easy flight, although they may have let the work experience bloke do the landing.... Strange to get on a plane and everyone is pretty friendly and chatting. I knew a couple blokes from around camp. On the bus and out to camp. You get the option to go into town for a couple hours, do any shopping etc. Allows the blokes to buy things like favourite foods etc and keep them at camp. I didn't need anything so straight in, grabbed my room and unpacked. Was easy as I knew where to put everything to set it up like last time. I'm in a different room, right up the back of camp. It seems more run down than my last, haven't sat on the bed yet........ well I can safely report it doesn't squeak. Looking forward to that. Also I have a brand name TV (cough Samsung cough) which is slightly larger than my other one so maybe I can watch it this time.

I bought a new laptop whilst on break, really happy with it. It's a Toshiba Z830 Ultrabook. I'm really happy with it, its feather light, super fast and the screen and audio are fantastic. I have loaded it up with some movies/TV shows (all legal of course) and some music. And it certainly makes writing this that much easier. I also bought 3 books with me, picked up the new Jo Nesbo - Phantom (thoroughly enjoyed his last one, The Snow Leopard) and two Clive Cussler novels - The Jungle and Sahara. That said, with working (still makes me laugh) 12hr shifts, and not having days off this swing I probably wont have time to read/watch as much as last time. Still, better to be prepared than not.

I had a really good break, I thought a week wouldn't be long enough but I made the most of it and it was great. Really relaxing, plenty of time with my wife and friends. I spent more time with my wife doing things than we would normally have together in a month or so. Mainly as she works a lot of weekends (about the only time I didn't work in my last job) plus I wasn't getting home to see her at 6-7pm and out the door at 7 the following morning. Went to the beach, had a surf, did some work on the car, was fantastic really. Looking forward to the next time. Starting to realise I may only have one more chance to be home with her before the baby comes, and we are looking to move house. So much to do and time is disappearing so fast. I know the next two weeks here will fly by.

Anyway, other than that, not to much to report. Hopefully I can really get in and get my hands dirty (I mean that both figuratively and literally) this shift. I think I have a general understanding of the operations, now to really get in and nut it out, work it out from front to back then find something new to learn. Maybe even have a go at teaching some of these guys how we deal with wires in aircraft. Anyway, hopefully I can get some more interesting pictures and info to keep you all entertained. You just never know what your going to find out here.

Day 9/10/11 - Who Needs Kidneys Anway

The "head" of P49 Shaft

So it's Wednesday I believe. Another day of inductions. Which really means another day taking it easy and enjoying myself. Can't complain, I have enjoyed myself so far, still amazed every day by different things. Learnt about some of the different services in the mine (air, water, drains) and how to manufacture and repair the hoses. When I say hoses, we are talking anything from 2 inch pipe to 6 inch, holding a few thousand PSI inside. Everything uses a special fitting called a Minsup fitting. It uses a twist style interlock, and is secured by 2 minsup pins (like a bent bit of metal really). Pretty cool stuff.

So yes, quite an easy day, same with Thursday. Happy Australia Day all. I spent it reading my book and listening to the Hottest 100 on Triple J. Had a few beers with lunch, and put my feet up for the day. Also, whilst we are on the subject of books, I got recommended Clive Cussler as an author, and I just read Dragon. Fantastic book and I will be reading a lot more of his novels now. Similair style to Matthew Reilly (one of my favourites) with a fast paced action, 1 man against a nation style story so very entertaining and hard to put down

A 2 inch hose I manufactured. Minsup fitting on the end.

10L workshop. Complete with 15 tonne overhead crane.

Anyway, Thursday down, onto Friday and my final day of inductions. Another pretty easy day, sort of, we spent most of the day driving around the mine familarising ourselves with different areas. Although "easy" it does tend to get to you with all the bumping up and down etc. not a comfortable ride that's for sure. The crew I have been with this week has been alot of fun, only 4 of us but it's been a laugh a minute. From the young bloke telling us he sends his missus to check the fuse box when the power goes out (as he is too afraid) to learning about a doctor who gives out Viagra samplers at Christmas, I have hardly stopped laughing. But as with all good things, it must come to an end. We didn't get run over (always a positive) and somehow managed to find our way up and out of the mine only to find it bucketing down. 30mm today they reckon, apparently it does rain in Isa, although it's normally a large shower, not constant rain they say. All I know is it is so damn loud when it rains and I am in my donga, that it makes my aircon seem quite. And that's like sleeping with a haul truck next to you.

An underground power sub station.

So after all that, another day was almost at an end. I hung around for an hour so I could meet my "superintendent" (everyone has fancy titles around here) and get an idea when I was meant to start, and what I would be doing. He wants me to get into the automation side of things which sounds really interesting. Basically part of this tele-remote system I was talking about a few days ago. It is officially known as MineGem. First, you take a 45 tonne front end loader (or a mucker), then you remove the driver, had some sensors, a computer up on the top level, and your away. There is 3 modes of operation, full manual (Im sure you can guess how that works), Co-Pilot mode, and Automatic. Co-Pilot mode leaves the operator in control but uses the sensors etc to ensure the vehicle always maintains set distances from walls etc and therefore it is the most common mode. The operator points in a general direction and the unit will navigate its way there basically. Automatic however, you set a pre-programmed path (from a drive (where the ore comes from) to an ore pass (where it is collated for removal to the crusher) for example) and the machine will drive itself there. This allows the operator to concentrate on the important parts, and manage multiple machines at once. Apparently the scale on which the automation is being carried out at GFM, is the largest and most advanced in the world. The team I will be working with are creating world first's in some of this technology and I will have the opportunity to not only learn it but be part of some fantastic design, research and development of new and improved systems. So I am pretty excited, and terribly nervous. I think my background in Avionics and my skills in IT should give me the skills and knowledge to fit in quite well. The team is a fairly new crew, so everyone is in the same boat and I am really looking forward to learning more about it all. The scale of such an operation is immense and mind boggling, and its going to take me a few weeks to start to get my head around it all I think.

So yes, another great day up here in the Isa, with plenty more to come. Will find out on Monday when I will be going home, but time has flown so far. Looking forward to my first day of "work" tomorrow. Thought I would also leave you with a video I did of driving around the minesite. Hope you enjoy.

P.S. I was looking at the page stats. 7 views from the US, not bad at all, but the 3 from Russia are rather odd. Hopefully they come bearing Vodka.

Day 7/8 - Back Into It

Today is Sunday, and for my part, it was the laziest Sunday I have had in a long time. Another day stood down, but this time I literally had nothing to do. So, I did a load of washing, watched a couple movies, and read my book. I did go to the gym for an hour (figured I had to get out of the donga for a little bit). I was getting frustrated with it for a little while, then I worked out that this weekend I have earnt more money sitting on my arse then I would normally make in a week. So then I decided to shut my mouth, lay down, and have a sleep.

All the vehicles waiting for the all clear to go down the portal.

Anyway, as I said, Sunday was pretty cruisey. Monday however, well, that's a completely different story...

10L

Not really, it was still just as cruisey, only this time I was back down the mine, and had others to talk to. I have another week of inductions, it's called New Starter. Basically it gives you a hands on to most basic functions of the mine, everything from driving underground (with 1200km of road and some pretty terrible signage its going to take me far more than a week), to operating certain tools, learning to use some machinery and how to safely enter and work in certain areas. The ground is always moving, so even though an area may have been safe to work in yesterday, today could be a different story. You need to learn how to tell what is good and bad, and how to deal with loose rock etc and make an area safe.

10L

So first up we were issued with some basic gear. Hardhat, safety glasses (both tinted and clear), gumboots, miner's belt and pouches, respirator and a water bottle. A 5L water bottle, and even though we didn't do a lot of physical activity today, and we were in aircon a fair bit, I still got pretty close to drinking all 5L. After that we headed down to 10L where the Safety and Training Room was located. Not a bad little area, right next to the underground workshop and store. My guess is that when I am underground it will be around this area as it's where the trades are mostly located.

My mining gear. Cap lamp, miner's belt and Self Rescue.

As I said, pretty easy day, some basic paperwork this morning, followed by driving around looking at parts of the mine and talking to people. Couldn't get much easier I reckon. It's a nice change from the flat chat days I am used to. Not sure if it will last for long so soaking it up while I can. This afternoon I got a locker issued to me for storing my gear in, and was back to camp by 4. This left plenty of time to go to the gym again, get this typed out and next I'll be off to dinner. Pretty hungry so looking forward to that. Got no real interesting facts today, I did make it to 15L however setting a new "deep" record for myself. 15L is 900m! Can't wait to break that 1km mark. I do however have some pretty cool pictures of down the mine which I hope you enjoy.

A mucker underground. They almost fill the tunnel.

Without caplamps you cant see your hand in front of your face.

An underground tele-mucker station. Up to 5 muckers can be remotely controlled from one of these stations.

Day 6/7 - End of the Week

It's strange, I know it's Friday, but days of the week seem irrelevant really. Imagine Monday is the day I fly out here, and Friday is my last day of work before going home. Everything in the middle doesn't matter.

Anyway, another day, another class. Working at Heights this morning, followed by P49 Cage Training in the afternoon. Pretty straight forward sort of stuff. Cage Training was basically learning how to operate the giant elevator that offers access down into the mine. This isn't an ordinary elevator though, imagine one so big you could fit 85 people in it, or a Toyota Landcruiser with passengers, and it goes to all 17 floors, that's 1.25km straight down, just remember, Q1, the tallest building on the Gold Coast, is 322.5m to the top of the spire. So this elevator travels 4 times that difference, at 45km an hour! Pretty exciting stuff. The cable is so long it stretches (and it's thicker than my arm) so the further down you are the more it bounces up and down.

Anyway, after that Friday was pretty much at an end. Dinner, couple of cold ones and off to bed. Today (Saturday now) I was rostered off, same with tomorrow, and not much to do. Luckily my company had offered to give me a lift into town for a while so I went in for a look around and some supplies. Kmart is the only "major" shop, picked up some nice light tshirts to help cope with the heat. Went to get an Optus card for my phone as they have the only reception out at the site (to make calls etc , I had to stand way out the back of the dongas) I was told they had to micro sims (which I need for my iPhone) and to try Woolworths. Well, after locating Woolies, and finding out they had none either, I spent an hour walking to every newsagent, store, servo that I could find and looked for one with no luck. So I gave up, went back to Optus to just get an internet dongle, and they then told me that they could "cut down" a normal one! Anyway, got it all sorted, now I have phone reception and wireless internet in my donga. Life is that much better now (sad hey)

Went and picked up a few books from the bookstore (Had to make a phonecall to get some author recommendations, ended up with 2 Clive Clussler novels, they sound good) and topped off the morning with an awesome beef burger at Mt Isa Hotel and a couple schooners to wash it down. Now Im watching "Changing Lanes" which I picked up from Crazy Clarks, enjoying a cold one and soaking up this wonderful aircon.

Anyway, another day almost over, it's just started sprinkling. Should cool it down for a bit. Looking forward to Monday to get back into this training and get it knocked over. Really keen to do some work now, classroom's just arn't for me.

• Haven't got conformation on this, but they reckon the majority of above ground haul truck drivers at MIM are women at the moment
• Mt Isa is regarded as one of the best mines to get a start in the industry. Alot of people move here for 6-12 months, get as many tickets at possible then use that experience to get a FIFO job elsewhere paying double what is offered here (or so they say)
• Getting paid to sit at a pub, enjoy beautiful food and drink beer is not a bad way to spend a weekend!

Day 5 - Down We Go

A mucker filling a haul truck

Well what a day today turned out to be. I am slowly getting used to the “hurry up and wait” attitude around here. I normally don’t like just sitting and doing nothing but I keep telling myself “remember how much I am being paid to do so” and that makes it that much easier. This morning I was back in the classroom, for a Generic Underground Induction. It was actually fairly interesting and I have a whole new respect for the people who work in underground mining now (I suppose that kinda includes me now to). It is a very dangerous place to be, and I almost feel like you need to constantly watch over your shoulder. But in reality this is why there is so much training, to properly equip me with the knowledge to safely look after myself and my workmates. It is mostly “common sense” but understanding the dangers has made me that much more aware of avoiding them.

A cap lamp with built in PED

Even with what seemed like a break every 15min, we finished up this morning lesson early. Which gave us plenty of time to don some overalls and boots, and ensure our hardhats and belts fit. This was it, I finally was getting a miners helmet, yes, most of my excitement came from this. I didn’t actually realise until today just how heavy the gear you had to wear is, and how hot it becomes. Overalls, steel cap gumboots, hardhat, cap lamp (yep it has it’s own special name), safety glasses, PED (Personal Emergency Device, ill come back to this), Self Rescue (another I’ll get to), miner’s belt (which holds everything) and a respirator. Now, time for a quick lesson, but it’s interesting I promise you. PED, this device is actually two devices, first, it is the battery for you cap lamp. Secondly, it has a built in messaging system, like a pager. Each unit is specific to it’s owner, and mine control can send a character message to any unit to alert that person about something. For example, in an evacuation emergency, every PED would receive a message warning them to evacuate. To alert the user to a new message, the lamp on your head will flash 3 times, and the unit beeps. Told you if was cool. Self Rescue, this is another cool device, once you open the canister you find inside a bag with a snorkel mouth piece attached. It uses your breath to activate the chemical which releases oxygen. You can get between 1-2hrs if you have calm slow breathing they reckon. Both these items to add a bit of weight to your belt, but you only tend to notice it initially, and when you remove it. You can’t enter the mine without these either.

So off I went, down the mine. Down the portal (God I love that word, how many people say, went down the portal today to get to work, like something out of Stargate) We drove down in a Toyota Troop Carrier (one of the smallest vehicles down there) and we drove down, and down, and down, and down. As you go down, the level number goes up. We drove to 12L (the mine goes to 12L I believe), each level is 60m, therefore we were 720m below ground. Firstly, I have flown lots, and seen amazing things from the sky, and I have dived a bit, and seen some pretty amazing stuff down there, but never have I seen anything like this. TV, photos etc just don’t capture it. It is so strange and alien down there. And hot, quite hot actually. Every 100m adds a degree they reckon, it was 38 degrees on the surface when we went down, making it45 degrees at 12L. Warm. And to top off the actual beauty of these man made tunnels stretching in every direction as far as you can see (which is 0cm if you turn your lights off), the feelings caused when a 65 tonne haul truck appears ahead of you with two bright spot lights, and a diesel engine rumbling causing vibrations right through you, and you realise you have to reverse down hill in the pitch black until you find a bay to pull over, well, that certainly is the most comforting thing I have ever felt. These trucks are so large, that if one was to back over you, the driver probably wouldn’t notice. Above ground, they may not look like much compared to their bigger above ground brothers, but down there, when there is lucky to be a foot clearance around the entire truck the tunnel, and they appear out of nowhere, they are huge!

A self rescue oxygen system.

So yes, today was in one word, amazing. Something I am so glad to have had the chance to experience, and particularly glad that I will get to see more of it in the coming weeks and months. With no way of telling whether it is day, night, raining, snowing, hot, cold, it is just so different to life above. They have all the standard things down there, crib rooms with water, toilets (porta-loos mind you, only 1 flushing toilet down there), aircon, tv’s, fridges and workshops. There is even a fuel depot to fill up on 12L. We came across one bloke, on a big leather recliner, with two big 22” monitors in front of him. Attached to his chair, were two joysticks with some buttons on each. His job, believe it or not, was to remotely control to “muckers” (front end loaders basically) which were 4 levels below him, and pick up “muck” and transport it where necessary. It is really like a big video game. They set up virtual walls etc and the machines can use these to avoid hitting things etc, as well as in some areas full autopilot to other areas when the operator takes over again and dumps or picks up a load. Way to cool. The only thing that concerned me though was it was running on Windows XP. I just want to know what happens when he gets a virus, or a blue screen of death!!

And once again another day is gone (my book is awfully close to, I should have bought another), we had a few power outages this evening which made it hot and dark. I lose track of time in my room due to not being able to see out at all, no idea if it is day or night etc. Still, it’s back on now so all good. Also thanks to everyone who is reading and for your feedback. Nice to know others are interested.

• GFM has 1200km of underground tunnels
• The coppermine in Isa is 2km deep
• The term “crib” comes from the older days when the miners would play cards at lunch, in particular cribbage
• Although I haven’t seen any canaries yet (nor any bird feed), I did discover that modern gas detectors are nicknamed canaries
• It rains underground. Ground water seeps through the rocks and can create the effect of rain whilst driving