3rd to 4th Nov - Tom Price

We were going to travel down to Millstream, then on the Rio Tinto access (dirt) road to Tom Price, about a 3 - 3.5 hour drive, however due to heavy showers in last couple days this road is only open to 4WD, I think this is a good omen, we have to go bitumen all the way and the long way, back up towards Pt Hedland and then Great Northen Highway via Munjini to Tom Price.  Takes a few hours longer, however it was nice travelling through the ranges.

We met Rusty at Cape Leveque, he offered us to stay at their place at Tom Price, so we lob there and take up residency on his and Kell's front lawn for a few days.   We had our names down for the Iron Ore mine tour on Saturday, so Friday morning go in to confirm, they need 10 minimum for the tour to proceed.   Friday has 2 spots left so we decide to take the tour while we can.   This is a good bird's eye view of Mt Tom Price, it was once a mountain, now it is a BIG hole...

A retired digger takes pride of place at the lookout above the pit.   We see a number of dump trucks, water trucks and loaders go by.  Unfortunately no trains in sight, these are pretty awesome - a fully loaded train weighs around 29500 tonnes and is about 2.4 kilometres long.  Our bus driver is a retired train driver, he informed us the senior drivers pull $250 000, that's why he has retired now, all set up.  Both Rusty and Kell work in the mines and we have to say Rio Tinto do look after their workers.

Another interesting fact we learn which we weren't aware, it is the Queen who owns the majority shares in Rio Tinto.    Rio Tinto Iron Ore operates ten  mines, three ports and over 1600 kms of railway track.   

Something else which amazed us is that the Rio Tinto Control Room is based in Perth. At some of the mines they are operating unmanned trucks and these are operated remotely from the control room.   A shot of the processing plant with the grade sorters pouring in the background.  Note the colour, it's all red!

The dump trucks are huge too,  Kell drives a dump truck, Rusty drives a loader.  It gets hot out here at Tom Price, whatever the temp in town it is 5 or more degrees hotter out at the mine site, so in summer you could get up to 50+ at mine.   This dump truck just on the outskirts of town, just for us tourists to take pics.

We take a drive out to Hammersley gorge, passing yet another oversized semi, they are in abundance out here on the Pilbara tracks.  The road to Hammersley gorge is about 50kms of dirt road.   We travel so far in the ute and decide too rough, we park the ute up and jump on the Suzi for about 10-15kms.   We stop to ask a ranger how much further, he says don't go there, it has been closed since Easter for upgrading to the tracks.....  Nice, another one we almost made.  We go back to town to the tourist info to make sure Karijini is open as we plan a trip there tomorrow.  All good.