Some Mines of Interest - Mining and the Environment: From Ore to Metal - page 63

EKATI

'EKATI is a magical and unique place. No other mine in Canada is like it. No other mine
in the world is like it' (BHPB's EKATI Diamond Mine Backgrounder). Located 200 kil-
ometers south of the Arctic Circle in the Northwest Territories, Canada, and 100 kilom-
eters north of the treeline, in an area of continuous permafrost with winter temperature
of 50ºC and below, mine development and operation is at the cutting edge of mining

engineering.

ESCONDIDA

The large Escondida open Pit mine located in Chile's Atacama Desert, is currently the
world's largest producer of copper and a major producer of gold and silver. It commenced
production in 1990, and in 2007 produced nearly 1.5 million tonnes of copper.

FREEPORT

PT Freeport Indonesia (PTFI) operates perhaps the world's most impressive mining com-
plex in the highlands of Papua, Indonesia. The Grasberg and other nearby ore bodies include
the world's largest gold reserve and second- largest copper reserve. The mine is located high
in the mountains close to one of the few remaining equatorial glaciers. Mine production
exceeds 200,000 tons per day, and the mine generated more than two thirds of the GDP of
the Province of Papua in 2006. As the Grasberg open pit completes mining in 2015 under-
ground mining will continue producing ore until 2041. However, the mine is also one of the
few mines in the world that relies on riverine tailings disposal, cause of continued criticism by
environmentalists.

GARZWEILER

The lignite-mining region in the Rhineland covers an area of some 2,500 km 2 to the west
of Cologne. Four large opencast mines in the district - Hambach, Garzweiler, Inden and
Bergheim - produced between them close to 100 Mt of lignite in 2006. Reserves of surface-
mineable lignite are estimated to be 35,000 Mt, of which 4,600 Mt are contained in current
areas planned for mining. Garzweiler alone contains 1,300 Mt. Mechanized mining began
in the 1890s and the i rst bucket-wheel excavator was commissioned in 1933. The bucket-
wheel excavator remains central to the overburden stripping and lignite mining. The
seven largest weigh some 13,000 t making them the largest land vehicles ever built.

KALGOORLIE SUPER PIT

The Super Pit at Boulder, near Kalgoorlie in Western Australia, measuring 3.8 km in
length, 1.4 km in width and about 500 m in depth, is Australia's largest open pit gold mine.
The gold i eld was discovered in 1893 and has produced about 1,550 t of gold since then.