Another big day today left camp at 7.00am to travel 200km to Mount Isa to learn a bit about the towns well known mining operation. Had a look round Isa and learnt some history on the mines. After a couple of hours in town we left for Cloncurry another 125kms. Not a very even road got a bit thrown around in the cab over hilly, fairly winding roads. Possibly with all the road trains going over it from Isa to Townsville. Now in Cloncurry. We are not covering the same route after Cloncurry taking a different highway back to Brisbane than in 2019.
On the road again 7.00am
PT having trouble with early morning sun getting in his eyes which is just rising. coming in from the left side. After a while I managed to tuck the card he is holding between the two sun shades which seemed to do the trick.
Modern technology looked what came up on the dashboard. Even cars these days want to rule your life.
Now arrived in Mount Isa went to the info centre to get some information on this famous mining town. But before I start had to take this photo. Nothing to do with mining. But interesting. The grandkids wouldn’t even know what some of them are. 😂
Now below for a bit of history re mining in Mount Isa.
In February 1923 a Victorian bushman rode into the north-west Queensland and made history with a hammer by chipping of a hunk of black ore from one of the craggy hills. After this discovery, he launched Queenslands largest producer of base metals. COPPER, SILVER, LEAD & ZINC.
As the miners were struggling to make a profit, after the Second World War the Americans injected money into the mines and they then became a profitable enterprise and never looked back since. A VERY big industry here in Mount Isa.
Mining from Mineral to market. The Mount Isa mines operation is the largest underground mine in Australia and one of the largest in the world. It is also one of the few mines in the world where the four minerals Lead, Silver,Zinc and copper are mined.
Massive native copper before they processed it. Weight approximately 3.5 tonne. Approximately 1metre long.
Malachite
Banded secondary copper ore with cuprite. Lovely colours.
I wanted to cross the bridge to take the below photo. Someone in front of me just waddled slowly and wasn’t going to hurry.
Pond out the back of the museum
Above and below are called COOPER LADLES, (Commonly known as Copper Pots)
This 10 tonne Copper Pot was used to pour the copper liquid into the Copper Anode below.
COPPER ANODE.
The copper concentrate is poured into this copper anode, which then will set.
This is the finished slab of copper for ease of transporting which has come out of the Anode after setting.
LOADER BUCKET
This is an underground loader bucket. Depending on the size of the loader, the bucket capacity used to range from 4 to 20 tonnes. Modern day units are much larger, 18 to 20 tonnes.
KIBBLE
Kimbles were used to transport tools, explosives, and men up and down the shafts. After the explosives had been detonated the men and equipment would be lowered down in the Kibble in order to fill it with ore before they lift it back up again.
These chain links (each one about 40cm long), were hung side by side vertically like a curtain, bolted to a heavy steel frame at the top of the shaft to lower and lift the Kibble up and down.
Above and below, we tried to get up on the hill to take this photo of this very interesting town Mt Isa, but must have missed the turning so just continued on. These are from images not taken by me.
People go on about the crime in these places like Alice Springs, Tennant Creek and Mount Isa. We saw nothing, all the towns were very quiet, not a lot of people to be seen when we have driven around. All the places seem clean and tidy. Probably a different story at night.
Interesting signs along the road. These fields aren’t fenced off so bulls could do this. Maybe exaggerated but maybe not. Note they have a solar panel above to light up lights (across the top) for night use. Driving on these roads would be pitch black at night so very hard to see an animal. That’s one of the reasons we get up early, drive, see and do things, so we can arrive at camp early afternoon or even late morning.
Further out from Mt Isa on the way to Cloncurry, shots of the countryside. Big difference to what we have been seeing. Now rolling hills and bends in the road.
As you can see it started off a nice smooth road but got a lot worse further out of town.
Tucked away. Looks like she is ready for take off. Wings out.
Tonights sunset from our site.
Blog started with the sun rise finished with the sun set.
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