Dragline Housekeeping

Mining Mayhem has had a lot of visitors this week from stripmine.org, so I thought I'd post a dragline-related photo for their benefit.

When I first saw this photo, I was scratching my head as to how it could have happened. There's no nearby highwall that rock could have come from. Then the answer became clear, as I saw the dragline boat behind the Nissan. This dragline hasn't been doing proper housekeeping on his bench. The dragline has let its rockdrain at the base of its spoil get too small, so that when it has picked up this oversize rock, it's rolled right down the spoil, jumped out of the too-small rock drain, gone across the bench, and into the car.

Good rock drains. A small bit of housekeeping, but one that can have serious safety side-effects.