Chapter 6
I Construction During The Settlement Years
II The Use Of Timber As A Structural Material
III Structural Steel
IV Concrete Technology
V Housing
VI Industrialised Pre-cast Concrete Housing
VII Ports And Harbours
VIII Roads
IX Heavy Foundations
X Bridges
XI Sewerage
XII Water Engineering
XIII Railways
XIV Major Buildings
XV Airports
XVI Thermal Power Stations
XVII Materials Handling
XVIII Oil Industry
XIX The Snowy Mountains Scheme
XX The Sydney Opera House
XXI The Sydney Harbour Bridge
XXII Hamersley Iron
XXIII North West Shelf
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At both Paraburdoo and Mt Tom Price, experience and increasing scale have produced further innovation in travelling stackers and reclaimers. Experience and experimentation have succeeded in increasing the original 100 tonne pit trucks to the current 154 tonnes. Power generation and supply has developed continually from the original individual site stations using 2.2 Mw diesel to 4.2 Mw diesels to Dampier 'C' station which today has 4x0 Mw steam turbines and one 20 Mw gas turbine. In 1978 a dual 380 km long 220 Kv transmission system was completed interconnecting the two mine sites with Dampier. The Mt Tom Price power station has since been sold and the Paraburdoo station (which was originally the Dampier 'B' diesel station) is now maintained on standby for emergency purposes.
Throughout the period since 1964, heavy investment in applied research and new technology has been directed to making the maximum use of the available mineral resource. To up-grade excessive available fines a 2 million tpa pellet plant commissioned in 1968 was later decommissioned because of inadequate returns arising from the 'oil shock' and export control rigidities. At Mount Tom Price adaptation of overseas technology (heavy media concentration and high intensity magnetic separation) increased production capacity by 11 mta from lower grade ore previously unmarketable.
Further heavy investment has continued, against the background of company and government wishes to achieve world-competitive further-processing of a major national resource.
Organisations in Australian Science at Work - Hamersley Iron; Mount Tom Price Mine, W.A.; Paraburdoo Mine, W.A.
People in Bright Sparcs - Hills, G. W.
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Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering |  |
© 1988 Print Edition pages 428 - 430, Online Edition 2000
Published by Australian Science and Technology Heritage Centre, using the Web Academic Resource Publisher
http://www.austehc.unimelb.edu.au/tia/429.html