We had booked a tour of the Rio Tinto Mount Tom Price mine and so had to be up early to reach the town of Tom Price by 830….

At the visitor centre we checked in and were given our hard hats and safety glasses before boarding the bus to take us out to the mine.

Our bus driver and tour guide had laryngitis and so it was really an effort for her to give us the running commentary as we drove along, however she did a great job – the tour was very interesting and informative.

The first stop was at a decommissioned digger for a photo op – the newer diggers are twice the size of this one – which is incredible to think of as this one was huge….

We drove along the dirt road past the original mine area which is not now being actively mined.

The town of Tom Price was established in the early 1960’s when high grade iron ore was discovered, and the team who discovered it brought a geologist, Tom Price, out from America to convince the Australian Government that an iron ore mine in the area was a worthwhile venture.

Tom Price described the amount of iron ore in the Pilbara as “the same amount as there is air” i.e. pretty much endless… and so the mining venture begun by Rio Tinto went ahead. Originally the town was a closed town – only employees of the mine lived there – until the 1980’s when the Shire of Ashburton was founded, and the town was opened up.  The town was named in honour of Tom Price who sadly died of a heart attack 2 weeks before the official approval to mine the area was granted.

We stopped at an area to look over current mining operations…. The pit was deep, and we could see bands of black shale which are very unstable and can combust spontaneously – these deposits are monitored closely to ensure safety on the mine site…

The large new area that is just about to be mined was clearly evident – it will take 6 years to dig off the top area to reach the high-grade iron ore – of which there is a massive amount under this particular mountain – and should be at least 30 years’ worth of mining in that 1 area alone.

There are 5 grades of iron ore – the darkest black is the highest grade – pic below.

We saw large water trucks which are used to constantly wet down the unsealed roads to minimise dust and keep the roads cool to protect the tyres of the mining vehicles – the largest tyres on some of the vehicles cost $250 000 EACH!!!

The next area we drove through was the crusher area where the rocks were crushed into finer particles depending on the grade of iron ore being produced.

The ore is then screened and concentrated to improve the fines quality…

… then loaded onto the rail trucks to be hauled by the locomotives to Cape Lambert or Dampier for loading onto the ships and exporting to customers around the globe.

The railway system that is privately owned by Rio Tinto is 1900km in length in total and is the largest privately owned railway in the world. The trains are autonomous except for the last couple of kms as they enter the mine area, and they are 2.5 kilometres in length!

The “graveyard” contained more decommissioned trucks and drillers….

We passed the maintenance shed where the vehicles were brought in for routine servicing and repairs…

All in all it was an impressive operation and really interesting to get some perspective on the size of mining ventures in the Pilbara.

On our return to Tom Price, we had some lunch and picked up some supplies. Klaus and Beryl caught up with a friend of Alison’s and then we all met at the Visitor Centre to drive out to Hamersley Gorge for the afternoon.

The road out to Hamersley Gorge was unsealed but in reasonable condition as it was used by the mines and there was a fair amount of road train traffic…

Hamersley Gorge is a short grade 4-5 walk up to the “Spa Pool” which is apparently a good place for a swim.

From the lookout at the top of the gorge you gained a perspective of the size of the gorge itself…

We walked along the rough pathway and down some steep rocky steps leading to the bottom of the gorge and a beautiful pool and waterfall area.

The walls of the gorge were impressive with a distinctive feature of sedimentary Banded Iron Formation (BIF) – spectacular wavy rock made up of minerals.

The rock has been uplifted and pushed together due to movements in the Earth’s crust. Seasonal rainfall caused rivers to carve out the gorge that we see today.

Continuing on we scrambled over large rock shelfs and steep platforms to go up to the next pool at the top of the waterfall… it was quite challenging for some and so not everyone came up to the next level.

The pool looked great for a swim and to reach the famous “Spa Pool” you had to swim the length of this pool and then clamber up a waterfall slope to then enter the spa pool…

Trev and I swam to the spa pool….

and climbed in (not very gracefully as the rocks were slippery and you basically had to slide up like a seal) …

The pool was very deep, but the water was clear and refreshing – and the water coming in from the waterfall above was warm – it was like having a shower!!

We enjoyed the swim while Klaus who also made it up chose not to swim but to chat to some other travellers… and take embarrassing long-range pics….

After enjoying the spa, we slid out the way we had come in and swam back across the pool…

It was then that we noticed Klaus had dropped something…. Not sure how it happened but a plate for dentures was left behind…. Klaus later reassured us that they were not his – he has his full set of natural teeth… or so he says!

Rose and Dave got into the walk as well … spending time inspecting the rock formations…

relaxing on the rocks themselves…. Dave assisting Rose to relax…. Or was it to prevent her from sliding down the rock face after losing her footing… no further comment needed… the spectacle provided some humorous comments from the watchers… and no Rosies were injured in the making….

We all finally exited the gorge the way we came in and made the long journey home to the Eco Lodge after a full day’s activities…..