Mount Wright - Mine Site and Processing Plant

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This was the closest mine pit to the processing plant. All profitable grade ore has been removed and the pit is now being filled in with overburden. When most mines sites are designed, the mining company will first harvest the ore furthest from the processing plant. This allows the companies to maintain or increase the margin of profit as expenses due to increased operating costs. Unfortunately, in this particular mine site, QCM did the opposite, and now there is at least a half hour haul from the current minable pits to the processing plant. There are several huge haulage trucks in this photo, but they are dwarfed by the immense size of the former mine pit.

The Mount Wright processing plant and loadout. The far right background shows a light strip which is the waste or overburden; the center and right background show mine pits no longer in use as all the recoverable ore has been removed. The water in the foreground has already been used in the ore recovery process and is reclaimed back to the processing plant.

During the separation process, the tails is separated from the iron ore. The tailings and the water used during this process are returned to the environment. The red color is from the water seeping from the tails pile picking up the color of the waste material.