Tell ya now SM, dozer (a doser is someone who slept on the...

Tell ya now SM, dozer (a doser is someone who slept on the lounge room floor for cheap accomodation when I lived in the UK backpacking) & digger operators aren't on $400K a year anywhere I know of. Here or overseas & to suggest otherwise is misleading at best, flat out lie at worst. It's the lease holders, vendors & mine owners that make the coin. It's a shame really that the likes of Rudd failed to get the mining boom profits tax over the line. You want to ridicule someone over what they earn then I suggest you have a look at Gina & Twiggy's present net value along with the likes of Rio & BHP. Even better have a look at the operations FMG own that run autonomous equipment negating the necessity to employ operators to drive machines. All in the name of advancing into the new tech era. Saving Twiggy a fortune in operational costs in the likes of wages, travel, food, accomodation, employee benefit packages etc.

I can tell ya now just quietly, what ADN have in mind is more of a quarry than open cast mine. I doubt you'll see anything heavier than 50T to 100T payload machines, that's probably even at a stretch. To be realistic the operational requirements will be more akin to Civ Con equipment than heavy mining. So put ya $400 K wage comment back where it belongs.