Old Photos

[old man emu]

After they took the gold out, where did they put the dirt?

 

I'd be intrigued to know how the gold got there. Is it alluvial, or still within the rocks? If the latter, I'd love to know the age of the rocks.

[rgmwa]

Apparently they've taken out about 60 million ounces of gold from the Superpit. If my calculations are right, that's a cube of gold measuring about 4.45m on each side. I wonder how much dirt they dug out in the process.

 

[onetrack]

The tailings (the crushed, extremely fine material left after treatment) are pumped out to tailings dams that are up to several kms from Kalgoorlie. The height of the tailings dams is restricted because of aviation requirements, and visual impact. The waste is simply dumped by dump trucks in a similar pile to a tailings dam.

You can see the tailings dams and the waste dumps, in both the foreground and the background of the aerial view of the Super Pit in the middle of the ABC article below.

 

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-08-18/super-pit-gold-mine-to-continue-operating-until-at-least-2035/12568876

 

Note: The Super Pit is not the largest open pit mine in W.A. The Boddington Gold Mine over took the Super Pit for size in 2016. But the most intriguing part of the Super Pit is, it's right in the centre of Kalgoorlie-Boulder, whereas the Boddington Mine is in bushland.

 

The Gold at Kalgoorlie got there aeons ago via welling up from the Earths crust during periods of massive tectonic and volcanic movements. The Kalgoorlie gold deposit is called an Archean Orogenic Lode deposit.

The gold in Kalgoorlie originates within dolerite and greenstone hard rocks at depth. The surface 50 to 100 metres is called the "oxidised zone" where the rocks have broken down by weathering over aeons.

 

The oxidised zone is soft material and the gold is easily won by simple crushing. However, as the excavation goes into the "sulphide zone" (the hard rock), the gold becomes harder to extract as it is bound up with sulphides, and the ore mostly has to be roasted to break down the sulphides, and release the gold. The hard rock has to be blasted continuously to extract it, whereas oxidised ore can usually be mined without blasting.

 

This is possibly the simplest explanation of an Archaean gold deposit, but its still highly technical.

 

https://pubs.geoscienceworld.org/segweb/books/book/1223/chapter-abstract/107021939/Archean-Orogenic-Lode-Gold-Deposits?redirectedFrom=fulltext

 

I have no idea how many tonnes in total have been taken out of the Super Pit, but it is in the billions of tonnes. 13 million tonnes of ore is processed from the Pit annually, and the waste to ore strip ratio is normally around 3 to 5 tonnes of waste excavated, for every tonne of ore excavated.

 

https://www.superpit.com.au/about/

 

Edited May 9, 2023 by onetrack

[old man emu]

The Archean Eon  is the second of four geologic eons of Earth's history and by definition representing the time from 4,000 to 2,500 million years ago. When the Archean began, the Earth's heat flow was nearly three times as high as it is today, and it was still twice the current level at the transition from the Archean to the Proterozoic (2,500 Ma). The extra heat was the result of a mix of remnant heat from planetary accretion, from the formation of the metallic core, and from the decay of radioactive elements. As a result, the Earth's mantle was significantly hotter than today.

 

One hypothesis is that rocks that are now in India, western Australia, and southern Africa formed a continent called Ur as of 3,100 Ma. A differing conflicting hypothesis is that rocks from western Australia and southern Africa were assembled in a continent called Vaalbara as far back as 3,600 Ma. Whatever! Those rocks are the Rocks of Ages.

[nomadpete]

13 hours ago, rgmwa said:

Apparently they've taken out about 60 million ounces of gold from the Superpit...... that's a cube of gold measuring about 4.45m on each side.

 

Where is it now?

[onetrack]

It's spread all around the world in jewellery, in coinage, in industrial products, and in countries gold reserves. Both the Indians and the Chinese like to have some gold on hand as a financial backup, either in the form of jewellery or coins or small ingots. The largest amount of gold is still held in secure facilities as a store of wealth for many nations.

 

The trading of Precious Metals is a highly and intensely regulated market, and it's surprising just how much power Threadneedle St still has, as regards the storage and trading of precious metals. This is represented by London physically holding 99.9% of Australias gold reserves.

 

https://www.rba.gov.au/qa/gold-holding.html

 

https://www.lbma.org.uk/market-standards/global-precious-metals-code

 

https://www.lbma.org.uk/publications/the-otc-guide

 

Edited May 9, 2023 by onetrack

[rgmwa]

During the war, Churchill had the Bank of England’s gold reserves secretly sent to Canada (Operation Fish) because he was worried the Germans would get it.

[facthunter]

The "Golden Rule" is He who has the gold makes all the rules.. Nev

[Old Koreelah]

3 hours ago, facthunter said:

The "Golden Rule" is He who has the gold makes all the rules.. Nev

So true Nev. It’s been almost eighty years since the big nations rejigged the world’s trading system around the US dollar and it’s overdue a major reset.
If the big trading nations return to some form of currency backed by gold, Australia won’t be at the table. We might be a major producer of the yellow stuff, but keep very little as a currency reserve.

[Marty_d]

We keep very little from our minerals, oil and gas - the multinationals ripping it out of the ground make massive profits for their shareholders and pay little of it in tax.

When hit with the wet lettuce leaf of 2.4b MRRT the companies couldn't believe their luck. 

They are allowed on private land, they leave the land scarred, the aquifers polluted and the profits overseas - profits from resources that belong to all Australians.

It'd be like someone coming onto your land, cutting down all the trees, taking the trunks to sell and leaving the branches for you to clean up. Then maybe giving you a few cents out of the $100 they made.

I think they should be forced to rehabilitate the land to the state it was before they got there, guarantee not to negatively impact the environment or water table (under pain of fines equalling 100% of profits), and be taxed at 80% for all profits greater than the average of those earned by all Australian companies. 

And if they don't want those conditions, f*** off.

[nomadpete]

6 hours ago, facthunter said:

The "Golden Rule" is He who has the gold makes all the rules.. Nev

That's why I asked where our gold went after it was extracted from our country.

Also, how much of the gold that has been mined in Australia belongs to Australia (as national wealth) and how much belongs to mining companies or other countries?

[onetrack]

Quote

Also, how much of the gold that has been mined in Australia belongs to Australia (as national wealth)

Probably about 0.1%.

 

Quote

...and how much belongs to mining companies or other countries?

About 99.9% ...

[Old Koreelah]

Back to historic pix; just dragged out a few ancient magazines I inherited from my mum’s dad. He selected a bit of Comboyne in c.1904.
By 1928 had paid for the place, build a home, raised a heap of kids and bought this car, for the price shown:

That car was still on the road in the Port Maquarie area, last time I heard.

 

How could he afford all this, starting with nothing? Bluddy hard yakka, plenty of luck and living off the land. He made good money “shooting bears” when their skins were in demand. He bought his ammo from a small sporting goods shop in Sydney, where the shop assistant was a young bloke call Don Bradman. 

[onetrack]

And Eagers are still in business, despite the hard times of the automotive sales business in recent years!

[Old Koreelah]

For all you truck fans, here is a revolutionary design from 1929:

[red750]

I get lots of old photos from all around Australia on Facebook. This one is the Maintenance Shed Lune River Tas. Dated 16-2-1971.

 

 

[Marty_d]

3 hours ago, red750 said:

I get lots of old photos from all around Australia on Facebook. This one is the Maintenance Shed Lune River Tas. Dated 16-2-1971.

 

 

Lune River hasn't changed much - but do you mean 1971 or 1931?  That car looks pretty old.

[red750]

The caption with the photo said '71.

[red750]

Here are a few more.

 

Collins & Elizabeth Sts 1927

 

 

Coles Store Croydon

 

 

Little Collins St 1953

 

[red750]

Just to show there is no Vic bias, although more of them come up on my Facebook, here are a couple of other states. They do show Qld ones as well, but not tonight.

 

Grafton St Coffs Harbour (undated)

 

 

Opening of Bijou, Esperance 1896.

 

[onetrack]

The truck in the Lune River photo, is a late 1940's KB series International Harvester truck. I would think the 1971 date is about right, judging by the shorts/long socks attire.

 

The Inter truck looks pretty tired, it would be around 25 yrs old, if it's 1971.

 

Edited May 17, 2023 by onetrack

[onetrack]

The Coffs Harbour photo would be around 1949-1950. There's a couple of 1947-48 Chevs there, and some other 1940's cars and trucks, but there's also a lot of 1930's cars, too.

 

The Bijou Theatre is still standing, and still in good shape! It's the oldest surviving wood and iron theatre in Australia.

 

https://ourgems.com.au/directory/esperance-theatre-guild-inc/

 

Edited May 17, 2023 by onetrack

[red750]

Finally, a Qld photo.

 

Marine Pde., Coolangatta circa 1930's.

 

[red750]

Yay! Another Qld photo. Nerang St., Southport 1953.

 

[red750]

Another Qld one...