Fire badly damages $18m shovel at Kalgoorlie Super Pit
A fire burned the cab of a 750-tonne Komatsu PC8000 shovel at Kalgoorlie's Super Pit on September 9.
A fire damaged the driver's cab of a 750-tonne Komatsu PC8000 shovel on September 9 during the night shift. The shovel was working in the Oroya Brownhill section of the Super Pit.
No one was hurt. The PC8000 costs about $18 million to replace.
WorkSafe WA is looking into it with Northern Star Resources, which owns the Super Pit. The company said operations have not been much disrupted and emergency teams put out the fire.
The shovel was due to be retired in November and has already been replaced by backup equipment.
- 750 tonnes
- Shovel weight
- $18 million
- Replacement cost
- 13,900 litres diesel
- Fuel tank capacity
- About 600 kilometres east
- Location from Perth
Why it mattersAn $18 million shovel was damaged. A safety investigation is underway at one of Australia's largest gold mines. This shows risk in major mining operations.
AustraliaKalgoorlie Super Pit continues production with contingency measures; the incident raises questions about equipment maintenance and fire safety in WA mining.
✓ Claims checked against the source and corrected before publish. checked 11 d ago
