Update August 29 after 5 full days pushing we are dropping the benches very quickly, notice the 2010 pit is half full and the pit walls are over 30 ft deep, the Heron target is only weeks away.
We rented two Amida light towers for night operations, these will be running all week.

The 2010 Pit on 13f, the cave on the right side of picture is the 1905 united company workings attempting to enter the old Heron workings.

This tool is essential, a D10 size ripper shank and tooth that fits on out 450 clc excavator, the hard pan that is covering the Heron lead is like a giant safe, it has to be shattered and this is the tool!!

August 2011

To speed up getting to the buried pay dirt, the mine recently leased a D8N Cat bulldozer.
Working on the crown grant 13f - "Jim Allen" and "Heron" location, the D8N dozer will push the overburden instead of been loaded into rock trucks.

HardUp LTD rented this machine for 300 hr contract to speed up the removal of overburden into the cleaned out 2010 pit.

It is now working on a 250ft push and we are all amazed as to its production.

The Heron tunnel entrance is now a reality we can stand on the strip benches and actually see the tunnels from the Excavator less than 50ft below us.

The bulldozer can push 60 tons at a time downhill over the 80ft deep pit wall into the old 2010 pit. It has a Ublade so material stays on the dozer blade while being transfered to the edge. (SU Blade)

We have installed a ripper D10 size shank on the 450clc excavator so as to maximize production, the cat is not ripping at all just pushing material that the excavators are ripping and moving.

The excavator ripper is far more economical than using the D8n 4 barrel ripper.

The D8N Cat is using about 260 litres a shift, these cats have very impressive fuel consumption rates.
We originally planned on leasing a D9H and these machines will burn 500 litres a shift pushing the same amount of material, so the decision for a newer model rental was a good choice.