Huge gold mine that already discovers 11 tonnes a year about to dig even deeper

An Australian mega mine which produces enough gold to make 4.7 million crowns for the coronation of a British King or Queen is now digging even deeper. Tanami gold mine in the remote Red Centre of the Northern Territory in Australia extracts an impressive 11 tonnes of the precious metal from the hot parched desert terrain each year.

By comparison, St Edward's Crown, the magnificent headpiece used by Kings and Queens for centuries in the UK, weighs just 2.23kg. And now the owners of Tanami have plans to delve even deeper in their quest for riches, at the remote mine which is more than 500 miles south of the city of Darwin. A new shaft is being dug more than a mile deep at Tamani, a mining operation which relies on so-called fly-in-fly-out (FIFO) workers. FIFO employees often live in larger cities, like Alice Springs or even Sydney, and fly in for stints of work at the mine lasting weeks at a time to sustain the vast industrial scale of the operation.

During what is known as the hot season (October to March), the average maximum temperatures for Tanami can hit a scorching 38C and the harsh desert conditions mean workers need to protect themselves from the heat and blistering sun.

Senior construction manager Grant Brinkman, from Newmont Corporation, told ABC News expanding the mine, dubbed Tanami Expansion 2, would include a vertical lifting shaft to pull up ore from underground.

He said: "This shaft is designed to produce 3.8 million tonnes a year.

"We're going to gain an extra million tonnes a year at significantly reduced operating costs to Newmont mining."

According to Newmont, the new hoist will be nearly 1,500 metres long, making it the deepest production shaft in Australia. It will be able to haul 28 tonnes of crashed ore to the surface with each hoist.

Mr Brinkman said the hoist would move ore to the surface quicker than using trucks.

He added: "The trucks take about a three-hour return trip to drive underground and pick up a load of rock and come back. This shaft system, it can hoist the equivalent amount of rock in about two and half minutes.

Suzanne Burke, who works as a haulage supervisor, said she is a fan of working underground. "I love underground. So as soon as I go in that hole, it's like I'm home again", she added.