[LRflex] Re: Concentration

Love this photograph!
   
  Ed.

David Young <dsy@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
  This,should be the last of the mine shots, from last Friday.

After the ore is mined, it must be milled down to a powder and then 
"concentrated" to about 40% copper. The dried concentrate is then shipped out, 
for refining.

Photographing the SAG & Ball mills proved almost impossible, at least in 
colour.  The lighting used is one that I've found impossible to correct.  You 
can see it filtering through from the far left, in the shot below.

The lighting on the concentration side is a more "normal" mercury vapour type.  
Difficult, but not impossible to work with.

Both sides suffer from tremendous vibration from the mills.   I found a tripod 
useless, for the catwalks vibrated unbelievably!  It proved better to hand hold 
and here the in-body IS of the Oly E3 proved invaluable!  The video crews found 
it impossible to work without a SteadiCam.  (Exposure was 1/50th - f3.5 - ISO 
1250.

The noise was also unbelievably loud, even though we had good quality ear 
protection.  However, not even a Leica could do anything about that!  (Normal 
sound levels in the mill are around 94db ... and in spots it gets quite loud!)

In this shot, the slurry is "floated" (in what, they didn't say) to separate 
the copper, in what is the world's third largest concentrating facility.

http://www.furnfeather.net/Temps/Concentration.htm

Sorry Ted... I couldn't shoot "from the shadow side", as the only shadows were 
from the overhead lighting!

If anyone's interested: a brief overview of the HVC operation is at: 
http://www.mining-technology.com/projects/highland/

Comments, criticism welcomed, as always.

Cheers!

  ---

  David Young,       
  Logan Lake, CANADA 

  Limited Edition Prints at: www.furnfeather.net
  Personal Web-site at: www.main.furnfeather.net
  Stock Photography at: http://tinyurl.com/2amll4

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