Dragline Broken Boom

Saraji Dragline 22 Broken Boom

Merry Christmas everyone! I hope Santa didn't bring you any broken booms. Can any readers out there fill in some more information on when this occured?

Having Trouble Digging

Dragline Boom Collapse

I'm not sure what caused this boom failure, but it looks like it might have been a tightline failure. This is where the bucket comes too close to the boom, either damaging the boom directly, or by folding the boom in half through the combined stress coming through the tight drag and hoist ropes.

Curragh Boom Drop Video

The Curragh Boom Drop video has finally escaped into the wild. This video is incredibly spectacular, words totally fail me to describe the incident. It's a miracle that no-one was killed.

Many thanks to all those who sent the video through to me.

Goonyella-Riverside dragline boom collapse

This picture is from the Goonyella-Riverside mine in Queensland. Keep an eye on the Bucket-Wheel Excavator in the background, we'll be seeing more it on a future date.

Edit: 7/12/2010 - Additional photo

Curragh Boom Drop

Update Mar '10:
More people seem to be looking at this page rather than the home page, so I thought I'd post a copy of the video here too.:




I finally got some photos of the Curragh boom accident this week, so I thought I'd post them right away, since there's a lot of interest in them.

This has probably got to be the biggest mining accident in the Bowen Basin for years. Curragh was performing a shutdown of its dragline, and decided to lower the boom using a Manitowoc crane instead of using the internal mechanisms. Something went wrong with the crane, and the boom fell from nearly its full height.

In the photos, you can see the damage to the top chord of the boom. The Manitowoc crane itself is destroyed except for the main house. You can see the remains of the front boom hanging over the remains of the rear boom. It's amazing no-one was seriously hurt. The boom itself would have to be totally written off, and rebuilt from scratch.