Winder Motor Failure

Some more old pictures from the Ertsberg mine in Freeport, Indonesia. At this mine, Ore was crushed at the mine site and delivered to the concentrator via cable skips. One of the winding motors over-sped and disintegrated. No one was injured.

The second photo is the rotor segment, where it came to rest in the electrician’s yard. The lunch box, placed in shot for size reference, is about 300 mm long and 250mm high.

The rotor segment flew through the winder house wall (photo 5)..then across to the Electrician’s compound. It hit the bank just below the donga and went up through the floor / wall, out the roof and landed in the yard behind.

Photo 6 was taken looking along the “flight path”. Note the flat trajectory. The segment went under the stair stringer (upper right) – missed the cable car gondola and all the cables It hit the bank just below the donga and went up through the floor / wall, out the roof and landed in the yard behind.

Photo 7, close-up of the impact site and donga damage. Inside was an electrical foreman’s office. The, Aussie expat, foreman had just left his desk which was up against the wall just right of the window. What’s left of the desk is visible through the window.

Rear Dumper Over Waste Dump

An old photo today of a fatal incident back in the 80's at the Ertsberg Mine in Freeport, Indonesia. The photo (taken from the cable car and looking almost straight down) shows the wreck of a Cat 769 which went over the waste dump. The driver was killed. The truck was never recovered just slowly buried with more waste rock.