Page 55 - 00 Volume 5 The Mine

from around one of the Dominion's largest The daily output is about 500 tons of coal. It is
shovels, which slid down a 40 foot bank in estimated that the mine has produced 500,000 tons
a recent landslide. and has a further life of about 25 years.
Weighing 153 tons, the machine, a In the present main pit can be seen the old galleries
120B Bucyrus Erie shovel, is lying from an underground mine which closed down for
capsized and half buried in tons of very economic reasons about the time of the First World
slushy spoil. It will be some time before War.
the machine can be righted and any
damage rectified.
During a recent thunderstorm Mr H. C.Littlejohn, Large Stopbank
Manager for Downer and Company, which operates the The whole mine area covers about 70 acres and a
mine, was working in his office when he saw the great prominent feature of the landscape is the 70ft
machine teeter on the far bank of the pit and fall diameter stop bank which encloses from the rest of
the lake the area to be pumped out and worked.
headlong down with a terrific landslide.
Part of the output from Kimihia goes to King' s
Bound For Russia Wharf power station which returns "white coal" to
Costing £80,000, the shovel came to New Zealand work the electrically-operated equipment in use at the
in 1945. It was destined originally for Russia through
New York under lend-lease, but at the last moment mine.
was diverted to New Zealand. It is electrically Recent rains have interrupted work at Kimihia,
operated and a 6000-volt feeder cable is used to but the temporary loss of the huge excavator has
supply it with power. Each shovel movement caused considerably more inconvenience.

involves a different motor. A further report found in the Waikato Times dated
Some idea of its size can be gained from the fact that 20th April 1960 was headlined . . .
the caterpillar tracks are higher than a man's chest off
the ground. One bite of its five cubic foot bucket is Good Cheap Coal Even at 200

sufficient to fill a truck. Feet Below Lake Level
The machine is used for stripping

overburden from above the coal seams. More than one-third of the 4,800,000 cubic yards of
Operating for the past 12 years, the Kimihia mine is overburden, mudstone and soft clay, covering the
situated on what was originally the bed of the lake.

Opencast workers pose for a “formal” photograph.