Stuck in the Mud

I was given the keys to one of the pick-up trucks this morning along with a team of four to help me re-sample the tailings dams at Klipwal. A couple of weeks ago, Lloyd arranged for me to do the exact same thing (http://macsledger.blogspot.com/2010/10/fools-gold.html), so the holes were already dug and I knew exactly how to go about it. I planned for the sampling to be done around 10 after starting digging at 7, and then I could have all of the material over the James table and the pyrite concentrate into the sample bags ready to go by about noon or 1 at the latest. Sometimes, of course, "kuk" happens. There's a new Afrikaans word for you to enjoy.

To recap from a previous post, I was sampling 3 tailings dams, which are basically large piles of fine waste material from the ore that is brought up from underground. Through previous sampling they have established that there is still a fair amount of gold in these tailings, mostly locked up in pyrite crystals. So today I would take a total of 400 kg of tailings material from the three dams and then run this material over the James table to separate out the pyrite into a concentrate that will hopefully be running at up to 80 grams/ton gold. This is economic because of the sheer volume of material in these tailings dams, and it's so easy to get to. Say for instance, that the three tailings dams here contain a combined total of 2 million tons of material, which is not far off the actual amount. When this material is run over the James table, it produces a pyrite concentrate that weighs about 1.2% (conservative estimate) of what you put in. So that gives you 24,000 tons of pyrite concentrate, which will average anywhere from 15-80 g/ton gold. That is what the sampling I am doing will give us an indication of, the grade of the pyrite concentrate. And if we do get up into the 80 g/ton gold range, with gold going at over 43 dollars per gram right now, that can generate some serious money. (WARNING: MATH) For instance, taking the most conservative possible estimate: a 1,000,000 ton dam, with a 1% mass pull, running at 15 grams/ton gold, will produce a revenue of....$6,450,000. Or, for the optimists, 2,000,000 tons of tailings, with a 1.5% mass pull running at 80 g/t will give you...$103,200,000 (!). Obviously the result will be somewhere in the middle, and that is what my sampling will help find out.

So all was normal as Leonard, Phillimon, and I along with two others systematically filled up buckets with the mud and then filled 3 large bags, one for each dam, with the tailings material. Johan, our electrician, was working on some powerlines adjacent to the dams, and was using the pick-up truck as well. With the three full bags ready and waiting at various areas across the dam, I borrowed the truck and drove to the first bag. I backed up to meet the first bag which contained 200kg or 440lbs of the muddy "waste". I had six people on my team now and with me as the seventh, it took all of our strength to lift up the awkward, floppy sample bag into the back of the truck. With that one loaded, they got in the back along with the bag and I pulled away towards the next bag about 100 meters away.

20 meters later, I was sinking. A put my foot down, and experienced that horrible feeling of having your foot on the gas pedal, hearing the wheels spinning ferociously, and the car going absolutely nowhere. I turned off the truck, had everybody get out, and I found a couple of pieces of wood to wedge under the tires of the rear-wheel drive truck. All six of them pushed as I slammed on the gas and tried to get us out of the situation, but after about 5 tries, I needed to explore other options.

I called Thys, Klipwal's mechanic, taxi driver, and all-around vehicle guy. Five minutes later he was hooking up the back of the truck to the old Land Rover that he arrived in. The seven of braced to push the truck, Thys hit the gas on the Rover, and...nothing. In fact there was some movement, unfortunately it was the Land Rover now sinking down into the mud. Now we had two vehicles swallowed by the viscous, soupy clay. Thys cursed a bit in English and Afrikaans and then hopped into the original pick-up that I got stuck. He instructed us to push, and we all followed his order even though both he and I knew I had tried the same thing unsuccessfully 20 minutes prior. Thys rammed down the accelerator, we pushed, and to my surprise the truck lurched forward! That's experience for you. We continued to push as it awkwardly skidded through about 20 meters of mud before hitting a dry patch where he could rest.

What happened next is the reason why I will now carry a camera with me whenever I am at work. I am extremely annoyed I didn't have it with me for this moment. Thys navigated his way to the extreme Southern corner of the tailings damn that we were on, reversing to the very edge. He now had the second bag of material that we loaded onto the back, adding an extra 100 kilos to the weight of the truck. In front of him was 50 meters of dry dirt followed by about 80 meters of mud before he was safe again on the dry north side of the dam. A couple of loud revs of the engine echoed towards us, then, straight out of Back to the Future, Thys gunned it to 88 and screamed through the gauntlet of mud. The truck fish-tailed around a bit but glided beautifully along until finishing safe and sound on the other side. It's unfortunate that today was sunny and stormless; a well-timed bolt of lightning and Thys would have undoubtedly travelled through time.

Attention now turned to the stuck Land Rover. We first relieved the pick-up of the heavy sample bags before Thys drove into position to tow the Rover with the pick-up. I couldn''t help but think of the ridiculousness of the situation. A 10:30 am, the Rover was towing the pick-up. At 10:45, the pick-up was towing the rover. This proved to be even more ineffective, the two-wheel drive pick-up having no chance. And even with us wedging rocks underneath the Rover's tires and Thys gunning the Rover as I tried to tow it with the truck, the Rover just sunk even more. The chassis was on the brink of sinking into the mud, so we had to stop.

I got my team to help me load the three sample bags back into the pick-up, and we drove back to the plant to drop them off, having no choice to abandon the Rover for the time being. After unloading the samples next to the James table and then waiting in the office for about thirty minutes, the Rover's savior arrived in the form of Lloyd's old Land Cruiser. Pietrus had taken it into Piet Retief on business and now we could use the beast to get the Land Rover out of the mud. I went down with Pietrus and Thys in the Cruiser, we hooked it up to the Rover, and Pietrus stepped on the gas. The front of the Cruiser lurched upwards, and then after a couple of seconds, the Rover popped out of it's muddy trenches and rolled forward into the harder dirt.

Thus ended a normal work day at Klipwal. For the record, I am in no way affiliated with Toyota or the Land Cruiser model, but that thing saved the day!