Komatsu 930 vs Caterpillar 16H

This is taking the whole Caterpillar / Komatsu rivalry way too far. Here, an operator on a Komatsu 930 lost control, and drove over the side of the Caterpillar 16H grader.

Massive damage to the grader.





Look at the tire marks on the side of the cab. A very lucky operator.

Norwich Park Dragline Recovery

When we last saw Norwich Park's dragline, it was looking a lot like this. A bench failure had the dragline nearly sitting on its boom.
The plan was to bury two dragline buckets, which were then attached to a stabilising frame. Tension was then applied to the frame to pull the dragline back level, while the dirt was excavated out from underneath the dragline.
Burying the two dragline buckets.
Attachment of the stabilising frame.

Excavation of the dirt underneath the tub.



Remote-control dozers. Safe, but poor aircon.


Upright!


Repairs to the boom.

Repairs to the house.

In all, an excellent performance from the BMA team to successfully right the dragline and get it back to work. Congratulations on a job well done.

Rear Dumper on Side

Rear Dumper into Hopper

Rolled Rear Dumper

Dragline Housekeeping

Mining Mayhem has had a lot of visitors this week from stripmine.org, so I thought I'd post a dragline-related photo for their benefit.

When I first saw this photo, I was scratching my head as to how it could have happened. There's no nearby highwall that rock could have come from. Then the answer became clear, as I saw the dragline boat behind the Nissan. This dragline hasn't been doing proper housekeeping on his bench. The dragline has let its rockdrain at the base of its spoil get too small, so that when it has picked up this oversize rock, it's rolled right down the spoil, jumped out of the too-small rock drain, gone across the bench, and into the car.

Good rock drains. A small bit of housekeeping, but one that can have serious safety side-effects.

Rolled Caterpillar 785B

Look's like he's managed to slide right down the spoil face.

Ditch repair

This is a chicken-and-the-egg situation. Did the driver drive this truck into the ditch so that he could repair it, or is he repairing it after driving it into the ditch? Either way, it doesn't look particularly safe.

Komatsu 930E on side

Back to the rear-dumper carnage again this week. On this picture, you can see how the truck lost its traction going down the ramp (you can see the skid-mark in the front-right of picture.)

Wet Haul Roads

And you thought your mine had water issues...

Just something a bit different from the usual rear dumper carnage. This photo comes from the Sanakin mine in Indonesia.