Blasted "Muck"

Muck is one of the terms in mining that is used to describe the rocks being brought out of a mine.  The photo is taken on "blasted" muck---rocks that have been drilled and blasted for removal.  Sampling is done to determine if the rocks are mineral bearing and then marked, in this case physically in red/blue sprayed lines, to be either processed or placed into a waste rock dump.

Rock Crushing 101

The primary crusher at the mine (top right under the tree branches) is what is called a "jaw crusher".  It can take up to 600mm rocks (~24") and crush them down to an initial 150mm (6").  Then a secondary crusher brings this size down before being fed to two tertiary crushers to give the ore a final size of 15mm (~2/3") before being fed into the mills.   The secondary and tertiary crushers are "cone crushers".  I've added animations below the photo.

Back on US soil this morning!

Jaw Crusher

Cone Crusher

It Takes All Kinds

I knew the site was using smaller trucks but did not realize they we construction type trucks until I started seeing them on the roads.  Definitely not what I am used to but the site has rich ore so it doesn't take as much as some of the other sites.  This loader appears to be loading some stripped material from the edge of the ore body.