A truck driver working at the bottom of Australia’s deepest gold mine gets loaded up with about 55 tonnes of precious cargo — hard rock blasted from the Earth and containing small specks of the yellow metal.
For every tonne trucks cart to the surface there might be only seven grams of gold, the equivalent of about one teaspoon.
Driving at the speed limit of 30 kilometres an hour, it takes drivers just under two hours to make their way to the surface to dump their load and head back down.
Today, it is the deepest trucking mine in the world and can trace its history back to the 1890s when former US president Herbert Hoover was mine manager.
This is Gwalia in Western Australia’s remote northern Goldfields.
The mine’s rich yet bloody history includes the deaths of 83 miners between 1898 and 1995 when 24-year-old diamond driller Graham Martin died on the job.
Since its discovery in 1896, Gwalia has produced more than 5.5 million ounces — worth about $10 billion at today’s gold price — to make it one of the richest gold mines in Australia’s history.
The mine’s name can be traced back to its Welsh heritage with former owners, Sons of Gwalia, translating to Sons of Wales. Sons of Gwalia is now known for one of the biggest corporate collapses in Australian history, with its 2004 demise marked by debts of more than $800 million.
Since Melbourne-based St Barbara took over ownership and restarted mining in 2008, there have been gold price crashes, skills shortages and a once-in-a-generation mining boom. But it has been a defining decade in Gwalia’s history, during which the mine has produced more than two million ounces of gold.
New ventilation to improve conditions for workers. One of the biggest challenges to extend the mine life at Gwalia is to get chilled air from the surface to the miners working below. That is why $80 million is being spent to improve the mine’s ventilation, including sinking large new shafts to reach the deepest parts of the mine. St Barbara managing director Bob Vassie said there was no end in sight for Gwalia. “This mine made over $250 million last year, so if you’re that strong you want to be doing it for longer,” he said. “Our previous mine life was only to 2024, and we’ve been able to extend it out to 2031, but the only way we can do it is by adding more ventilation. “We’re already looking at going down to 2,300 metres below surface, so we’re setting ourselves up for a long future here.”