Kinross Goal Mine

After taking some time to catch up on some needed sleep, we left for a trip to the Kinross Gold Mine where Danny works. However, before we get to the gold mine, just a little note on this sleep thing. We still are not adjusted to it being daylight all the time, as a matter of fact, we can’t remember the last time we saw darkness. On the other hand, we love all this daylight; we just can’t seem to get the body to agree. Enough about sleep and daylight, before leaving Fairbanks, we stopped at one of Danny’s favorite eating spots where we all ate more than what we should have. Eggs, pancakes, home fries and reindeer sausage, were just what we needed to start the day. The mine where Danny works is located approximately 45 minutes from Fairbanks and is a beautiful drive through the mountains and beside the Alaskan pipeline. Once arriving at the mine, Danny checked us in and we were off to a 5 hour tour. Danny had arranged for us to have a van to tour the site and tour is what we did. We covered every part of the mine starting with where they dig the rocks and dirt to where the gold is removed from the rocks and dirt and formed into gold bars for sale. It was amazing to see the size of the equipment that was used. We had the opportunity to crawl all over a new truck that was being assembled, one of the largest trucks in the world. They told us they were processing approximately 750 – 1000 ounces of gold per day and just celebrated mining their 5 millionth ounce.

Welcome sign to Kinross Gold Mine. Notice the Information on the sign "Left Hand traffic". This is because the trucks they use are so large that if you drove on the right side of the road the driver can not see the right shoulder of the road. Believe me, you would not want to run off the road in some of these places.

These next 3 pictures are where Kinross is actively mining. To give you an idea of the size of this hole (mine), each step on the side of hold is approximately 30 feet.

Danny and Linda standing by one of the trucks.

Some pictures of a new truck that was being assembled. This is the next to largest truck and has a hauling capacity of 300 tons. The tires on this truck are around $60k each.

Think I'll take it for a drive?

This is one of the shovals used to load the trucks.

Me and Linda standing in the bucket (shovel) used to load the trucks.

This is the part of the tour Linda liked, in fact, she thought this was a gift they gave to visitors. When she found out the value of this bar, well over $300k, she really didn't want to give it back.

If I only had this bar, I think I could trade it in for a new Baseball field???