Hi Ntphil,
My name is Bruce, not Brian, but I've been called much worse!
I don't know about my rainfall statement being "ludicrous", as I've researched it a number of times over the last 2 years. But you're right, I don't know the area, personally. I also haven't read Darren stating anywhere that the wet season is going to be an issue each year?
"Look at the rainfall records."
Well, I actually do look at the rainfall records for the Tanami Desert every so often, graph is below.
The average rainfall for January and February is about 134mm, or about 5.27 inches.
"Granites was put on skeleton crew and everyone flown out for 9 weeks because of heavy rain yrs ago."
Are you referring to a one off event?
Sure if a cyclone comes through anything can happen, but isn't that a rare event? "25 inches in a week", if that was a common occurrence then the average rainfall chart for the Tanami Desert would be totally wrong. As apparently since records have been kept on the Tanami Desert, the average rainfall for is 506mm or 20 inches for the entire year!
"Indeed, the Tanami Desert has experienced as much as 203mm in a single November day. The wettest month on record is February with 557mm of rain falling."
According to the records, 203mm, or 8 inches in a single day has been the record, and the wettest MONTH on record has been one February when 557mm fell for the entire month, or 20 inches!
The tracks do flood and become impassable at times during the wet season, that's when aeroplanes might come in handy, and they'd be flying workers in and out of there pretty regularly. And hopefully flying plenty of Gold out of there very soon too!. It is also on their plans to upgrade the airstrip when mining is in full swing.
I'm sure that ABU would have plenty of fuel storage to see out all but the worst of the storms, which may be one off occurrences. Production may stop for a day or so, but ABU hasn't mentioned major shutdowns occurring regularly in the wet season, as far as I know. And the relatively small scale of the mine, would mean that not a lot of fuel would needed to run it.
These are just my opinions from what I know. But I've also discussed this issue with 2 miners who own a private mine not far from ABU's Old Pirate. They concur with the above, but for them the rain is a blessing, its the heat and humidity in January and February that is a killer for them. In the sun it is often 50+ degrees, with up to 80% humidity! In their words: "f......., unbelievably unbearable!"
It is an interesting topic, and I like to debate the issues presented here, and see things from a range of perspectives.
Cheers
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