Seawall Comes Down!

[Michael Alexander]

Big news in the town over the last 24 hours, is the breaching of the mine's seawall at U40 , near 3Plant....

Luckily the mine was aware of the approaching cold front, which brought an increased ocean swell with it and were wise enough to vacate to bedrock situated behind the wall....

This is a major setback for the mine....

To give you an idea of the size of these sand walls, have a look at the 2nd picture below, towards the left on the wall you can see a dumper truck.....

[Robert Bruce]

Ouch.

[Bertie Horak]

Wow, quite a huge area that'll be "out of service" for a while.

[Michael Alexander]

It's actually pretty amazing how the mine is mining this area these days, if one considers that the broken sand wall that you see is actually some 600m out into the ocean, considering the original shoreline thirty years ago.....

a dangerous job indeed, I believe that the diamonds are a richer picking the deeper they mine into the surf....