mining
News

Kids Hijack An Excavator, Cause Massive Damage At Mining Site

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.

November 22, 2010
Science

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

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.

October 21, 2010

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

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.

October 16, 2010
Science

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

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.

Science

15 Monstrous Mining Machines

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.

August 10, 2010
Science

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

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.

November 18, 2009
Cars

How Do You Ship The Biggest Trucks In The World?

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.

September 10, 2008
Cars

Caterpillar Building 700-Tonne, Completely Automatic Mega Dump Truck

Gearheads at Carnegie Mellon University are partnering up with tractor-maker Caterpillar to build the world’s largest robotic dump truck, a 700-tonne ground mover capable of hauling 240 tonnes of earth. In case you can’t wrap your head around that amount, that’s like 33 African bull elephants worth of dirt.

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