Thanks to all who looked & for the comments.
Bruce, unfortunately it always seems to be hazy around here. The F7 dump is
the only place from which photography is possible & then only in the
afternoon with the sun behind. I was surprised at the performance of the of
the DA 18-55 WR - crops of the processing plant almost 2km away show a
surprising amount of detail. I must try some shots using the FA 100-300 with
& without filters.
Dave, in the open pit mining days there were massive pumps to get the
accumulated water out. Nowadays they let it filter underground & pump from
there. After the pit closed we had a similar race from the smaller Foskor
open pit which is only about 300m deep but that has now been stopped.
Mark, I agree. Here is a link to a shot taken in the plant area from the
eastern side looking right down to the bottom . It was taken before the
fault collapsed.
http://www.palabora.com/underground_mining.asp
Alan C
-----Original Message-----
From: David Mann
Sent: Wednesday, May 07, 2014 8:04 AM
To: Pentax-Discuss Mail List
Subject: Re: PMC OPEN PIT
Cool! Do the have to pump water out with the bottom being below sea level?
Actually it'd make a good lake provided you keep the crocs away.
Rio Tinto own the aluminium smelter down in Bluff and they've proven to be
pretty hard negotiators.
I'd have loved to do that race BTW. 10% average gradient would be good fun.
Cheers,
Dave
On May 7, 2014, at 12:23 am, Alan C <[email protected]> wrote:
Palabora Mining Company (PMC), formerly a Rio Tinto company, mined copper
from this open pit until about 12 years ago when the underground phase
began. Rio Tinto sold out to a Chinese company last year. The headgear can
be seen to the right behind the pit. To the left of the headgear can also
be seen the flotation plant & refinery. The open pit is about 1.2km in
diameter and 700m deep, the bottom being about 300m below sea level. The
large fault on the northern side collapsed when wall maintenance was
discontinued. We used to have an annual road race out of the pit - roughly
7km from bottom to top plus another 5km to the mine club. This is a two
shot pano taken from the F7 waste dump on the western side.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/wisselstroom/13935216898/
Alan C
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