Wall of gold

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Simmo said:
Whilst we are on stories bud!!!!!
There were two huge Ball mills at Granites, when I was there.

(For those that dont know, a ball mill is similar to a concrete truck, but many times bigger, there are big balls of steel inside, and the whole thing is rotating.... the ore is fed in, and the balls and water etc, roll around, smashing, mashing the ore to nigh on liquid state... this then gets 'siphoned' off to go thru the rest of the process...)

Anyway, when I was there, one mill was in shut down to get the wear plates replaced. (as you can imagine, big balls rolling around, would damage the outer casing of the 'concrete truck' so thick wear plates are bolted inside the drum.)

So these fitters would go into the drum, the plate was unbolted from the out side, and the plate removed... in time, reverse process, and new thick plates installed....

My point to this long drawn out description, is the guys, when they came out of the mill, were BLACK...and I mean covered!!! They walked in a plastic lined 'channel', and into a 'shower' where they would wash down and take off their overalls, and all the crap that was washed off them, went back into the system to be processed!!!!

True story!!
https://www.prospectingaustralia.com/forum/img/member-images/4105/1536485985_1024_mill.jpg

After Warrego mill closed down in Tennant creek,the new owners had a special crew come in and do a clean out of the old ball mill,many kilos of gold was recovered that had made its way behind the liners from all those years running
 

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