超级露天大采坑 Super Open Pit

澳大利亚最大的露天金矿，1893年帕迪·汉南（Paddy Hannan）首次在此地发现金子以来，好多小公司相继在这一矿区开采，曾经多达80多个矿井，开采历史超过100年。到1989年，Normandy Australia 和Homestake Gold of Australia Limited合资成立卡尔古丽联合金矿（Kalgoorlie Consolidated Gold Mines Pty Ltd - KCGM）买下全部租约，从此独家控制这一矿区。KCGM每年生产多达85万盎司的黄金，远远超过澳洲任何其它金矿，也确保澳大利亚作为世界第三大黄金生产国的地位，仅次于南非和美国。该金矿雇用员工1000多人，2008年支付当地薪金3.856亿澳元。

The Super Pit Location

The super Pit is located at the town of Kalgoorlie, known as Kalgoorlie-Boulder, a city in the Goldfields-Esperance region of Western Australia, and is located 595 kilometres (370 mi) east-northeast of state captial Perth at the end of the Great Eastern Highway.

Super Pit's Scale

The Super Pit is an open-cut gold mine approximately 3.6 kilometres (2.2 mi) long, 1.6 kilometres (1.0 mi) wide and 512 metres (1,680 ft) deep. It was created by Alan Bond, who bought up a number of old mine leases in order to get the land area needed for the Super Pit. Every now and again the digging reveals an old shaft containing abandoned equipment and vehicles from the earlier mines.

Super Pit's Operating

The mine operates 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and a visitor centre overlooks it. The mine blasts at 1:00 pm every day, unless winds would carry dust over the town. Each of the massive trucks carries 225 tonnes of rock and the round trip takes about 35 minutes, most of that time being the slow uphill haul. Employees must live in Kalgoorlie; it is not a fly-in fly-out operation. The mine is expected to be productive until about 2017. At that point, it is planned to abandon it and allow the groundwater to seep in and fill it. It is estimated it will take about 50 years to fill completely full.

Super Open Pit位列地球十大伤疤之一

Super Pit被环保网站Environmental Graffiti列为地球上十大伤疤之一，与南非的老钻石矿“大洞”，加拿大的Ekati和Diavik钻石矿，俄罗斯的Udachnaya和Mirny钻石矿，印尼的Grasberg金矿，智利的Chuquicamata 和Escondida铜矿，美国宾厄姆峡谷（Bingham Canyon）金铜矿等并列称为“超级陷阱”。

据报导，该“超级陷阱”3.5公里长，1.5公里宽，纵深下切360米，在太空看得清清楚楚。该矿原定于2017年停止开采，后来又得到批准延长4年到2021年，开采深度增至600米，可年产60万金衡盎司黄金，且许可其建立额外的废料堆。