Bauxite View Traditional Cache
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Size: 
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Plenty of parking available off Red Hill Road Small prize for first to find
Bauxite takes its name from Les Baux in France where it was discovered in 1821. It is one of the most abundant ores in the earth. Weathered rock with high concentration of extractable alumina, commonly found in eucalypt forests. Darling Range bauxite was discovered in 1957, however, it was not until 1979 that the Boddington bauxite reserves were developed. Boddington bauxite exists predominantly as a 2 to 12 metre thick hardcap layer that is drilled and blasted, while bulldozers are used to rip into shallow, softer layers of ore. The freshly mined bauxite is then crushed in two stages, the first reducing the rocks to less than 18cm and the second to less than 3cm. Once crushed the ore is stockpiled before being conveyed 51km overland to the Collie alumina refinery, where the red rock is turned into white alumina powder using the Bayer Process. The alumina is then railed 55km to the Bunbury Port for export to aluminium smelters worldwide. This conveyer is the longest conveyor of its kind in Australia . The conveyer you see from the view near the Geocache is 10km long and links the primary crusher at Marradong to the secondary crusher near Mt Saddleback from there it is sent on the 51km conveyer to the Refinery near Collie. It is the second largest bauxite mine in the southern hemisphere. Aluminium is commonly used in the transport, packaging, construction and electronics industries.
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
Avpr funqr urer