Getting Ready

View looking over the top of the Dump Pocket to the control Panel for the Rock Breaker. The Dump Trucks dump to the right of this photo.


So the very first thing that we had to do was to clear all the rubble out of the bottom of the Dump Pocket and get ready to lift the Spider and Mantle free of the Crusher. Usually (in the photo above) the Pocket would be full of Earth and rocks from the Dump Trucks and that Rock Breaker is used to break up the larger boulders. Just out of shot at the bottom is where the crusher sits level with the bottom of the Pocket. The controls for the Rock Breaker are where the right most guy is standing. Not a great job to have, with all the dust and noise!!!


The Photo above shows the hole that goes down inside the crusher (in the middle of the Dump Pocket). Usually the barriers and yellow safety cages wouldn't be there and there would be a Spider sitting on top of the huge lifting lug at the top of the Mantle. This photo was taken looking from the Rock Breaker Controls. The spider (see below) has already been removed and we are now in the process of hooking up the Gantry Crane to lift the 80 or so Tonne of Mantle out. The Crusher extends down into the next level underground and will need to be core drilled around it's base to be removed. It's in three parts and has concave wear plates covering the inside of it. The whole lot needs to come out.

This is the Spider which sits on top of the Mantle to protect the lifting lug and help disperse the Earth and boulders evenly into the crusher.

My Time at Tom Price

Map showing location of Tom Price in WA.

During August of 2006, I spent 35 days in the Iron Ore Mine at Tom Price in the North of WA. I worked as a Trade Assistant up the top of the Mine in the Pit. What our job entailed, was changing out the old rock crusher for a reconditioned one from Japan. The original Primary Crusher had been in place since 1967 or so and it took the full 35 days to remove the old one and replace it with the new one. The Crusher is a mechanism which has a rotating Mantle within a shell, when the Dump Trucks dump their rock into the pit, it falls through the crusher, thus getting crushed. The heaviest part of the Crusher was 80 tonne from memory, that was the Mantle.

This is a rough diagram of the different levels and what things are called so as I post photos it can be used as reference :) :) The rock was dumped in the Dump pocket, crushed thru the crusher and then the conveyors at the bottom took it out for further processing.

The Dump Pocket. This is the very top of the Crusher where the Dump Trucks back into and dump the raw rocks.