25th June: Left Cheela Plains and travelled to Tom Price, arriving at about 11.45am to allow time for a shop at Coles and we met up with Jill & Craig  prior to us all going on a Rio Tinto tour of their mine. The cut faces of iron ore hills which had been mined and continue to be mined are immense! Huge manually operated excavators load the iron ore into huge trucks and they take the ore of various grades to machines which fill the train wagons with ore and they are taken to Damper and Cape Lambert by a diesel operated autonomous engine.

The tour leader wasn’t great at explaining the various stages of the operation, but we certainly got the impression what a huge operation it was!

We then headed for Karijini EcoRetreat where we were given a huge campsite- number 66 in Wattle Loop. 

We had Shakshuka for dinner.

Iron ore wagons
Excavators and huge trucks costing $3500000 with tyres $6500 each

Filling the trucks with ore

Road to Karijini
Our campsite at Karijini EcoResort








Future of iron ore net zero











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