Mining

Geek Out

The Single Largest Land Vehicle On Earth

1:51AM July 29, 2011 | Andrew Tarantola

You’ve seen the Godzilla of Khazakstan and sure, it’s an impressive piece of machinery. But it’s a Tonka Truck compared to its big brother, the Bagger 288. This 13,500-ton leviathan chews the tops of mountains clean off. More »

Geek Out

Why Is This Carbon Sink Art Installation Pissing People Off?

12:00PM July 26, 2011 | Casey Chan

British artist Chris Drury created this mesmerising spiral art installation using trees, coal and dirt at the University of Wyoming. Looks cool! But apparently its pissing people off so much that they’re sending veiled threats to cut University funding. More »

Geek Out

Holy Freaking Hell, This Saw Cuts Through Mountains

1:20AM May 7, 2011 | Sam Biddle

Tech puts us in a state of awe all the time. Sometimes it’s the little things. The transistors. The immaculate pixels. The gorgeous lens. And then sometimes it’s a huge goddamn saw in Kazakhstan that obliterates everything in its path. More »

News

Kids Hijack An Excavator, Cause Massive Damage At Mining Site

4:40AM April 27, 2011 | Casey Chan

Boys will be boys? A 12-year-old and nine-year-old hopped into an excavator, drove it around a strip mining site and destroyed anything that got in their way. It got pretty bad. They flipped over a bulldozer, smashed windows and sprayed fire extinguishers at whatever they could find. The total damage the two boys caused is estimated to be $US164,000. More »

Science

Thirty Years Ago, A Louisiana Lake Turned Into A Swirling Pit Of Destruction

11:30AM November 22, 2010 | Sam Biddle

In 1980, Texaco drilled down to look for oil beneath Lake Peigneur. A little too far down. The mistake drained the entire lake like a bathtub, creating an enormous whirlpool that consumed barges, drills, and 65 acres of land. Oops. More »

China Won’t Send US Materials Required For Phones, Missiles

8:49AM October 21, 2010 | Sam Biddle

The New York Times reports a Chinese embargo on rare earth minerals – crucial ingredients for countless, very important things – has been applied to the US. Oh, and China possesses 95 per cent of the production capability for this stuff on the entire planet. More »

Science

The Swiss Have The World’s Longest Tunnel, And They’re Proud of It

11:00AM October 16, 2010 | Kyle VanHemert

Today, after 20 years of digging by some 2500 workers, eight of whom lost their lives, Swiss engineers blasted through the last bit of rock to create the world’s longest tunnel. The accomplishment even made macho Swiss miners cry. More »

Science

15 Monstrous Mining Machines

6:40AM October 16, 2010 | Oobject.com

With the recent rescue of the 33 Chilean miners, we’ve got mining on the brain. How do they create those crazy tunnels deep in the earth? With these spinning, churning, crushing machines of mayhem and destruction, that’s how. More »

Science

Radio-Style System Of Communication Via Magnetic Waves Demonstrated In Deep Mines

3:00PM August 10, 2010 | Rebecca Boyle - PopSci

After 13 miners were trapped in a coal mine in Sago, West Virginia, four years ago, rescuers didn’t know where to look for survivors – they could have been anywhere between 3300m and 4000m from the entrance. Radio waves can’t penetrate very far through rock, so there was no way to communicate with the miners. More »

Cars

How Do You Ship The Biggest Trucks In The World?

12:20PM November 18, 2009 | John Herrman

You drive them, you idiot. But if that’s not an option — say, if you’re shipping your Belaz mining truck from Belarus to South Africa — you’ve got to break them into pieces. Hulking, multi-ton pieces. More »