Sainters, I worked there in the early 90's starting off as a...

Sainters, I worked there in the early 90's starting off as a labourer/trucker. If we got 50 or 60 tonne up the shaft in a night shift which was the main trucking shift we were happy. We used antiquated air powered boggers to load the trucks or on some levels where they were not available we shoveled the ore in by hand. The cage in the shaft was the size of a telephone box and could carry maybe about 1 tonne each time. Very labour intensive and unproductive so Im guessing our cut off grade especially in the lowest levels was 15 to 20 grams per tonne.

Now I am told they have trucks that can carry 30 tonne up the drive at a time. The productivity gain is huge so its economical to mine much lower grades deeper down in the lower levels.