Kalgoorlie is known for its gold. That is pretty much why the town exists. For a couple hundred kms in each direction there are countless gold mines either operating or mined out. The mines need to know what is in the ground to know where to dig. They do exploratory drilling and separate it into samples with a discrete and known location.
Those samples are then sent to the assayer to check the gold content in them and the results sent back to the client so they can build up the underground picture of the ore body. It is a really neat process to think about, but a very dusty and tiring one to take part in.
For most of the time I was working as a crusher, the first step after the samples get sorted into jobs. For the last little bit I moved around a little doing some crushing and also some milling. Taking the tiny rocks and turning them into tiny dust with a baby powder consistency and a size no bigger than 75 microns.
Angie did sorting for the first little while then crushing, then a mix of sorting and weighing the processed samples for sulfur analysis.
It is good to be done.The photo is us walking off the site for the last time after a final ten hour day.
