Tom Price mine visit and ride to Exmouth
Tom Price is the township and the mine where Rio Tinto produce huge quantities of iron ore. Most is exported to China. We stayed in a donga at Tom Price caravan park overnight. Accommodation in Westerm Australia costs double what it did in Queensland. Grant kindly took unto the workers' restaurant for dinner. In the morning we were lucky to get seats on the mine tour bus "Crunchy' with Bas. He was very informative. The workforce is 40:60 women:men. The wages are high $A100k + p.a. The trucks are enormous. The truck tyres alone are higher to the bus. The driver gets to the driver's seat via the ladders and stairs. Some mines have autonomous driverless trucks controlled remotely. Our bus driver, Bas, gets his clearance to proceed with the tour from a control centre at Perth airport. There use to be a mountain here. Now it is a very large hole. Write a caption..... The mining trucks are dwarfed by the scale f the operation. 40...