The Capricorn Sapphire Mine

Capricorn Sapphire.kmz (810 B)

The map image is old but this is the location of the big Capricorn Sapphire mine in Australia. We were able to view it recently and I hope the image gets updated soon. The scale of the water recycling and de-silting dams newly built around the plant are huge. They rehabilitate the ground as they go. The mining area to the west on the GE image has all been rehabilitated with grass, scrub and trees with cattle grazing on it. They are allowed to use 10ha at a time and rehabilitate to be able to move further on. The mine is on cattle grazing property and they have built watering stations for the cattle, so miners and farmers get along well.

Update this map please, the reality on the ground is amazing. 

Welcome to the community.
My Dad was a gemstone miner in WA back in the 60's-70's and one of our admin (nostranger) lives in the Goldfields, WA. So this is of interest to us.
Google never inform anyone about upcoming imagery, and don't take requests. It's a matter of keep checking every now and again.

We would be interested in any other placemarks and/or photo's you would like to share.

Cheers.

Thankyou for the welcome. I have put a couple of photos onto Panoramio with geopositioning for the area, but to highlight the difference:

The green area in photo 1 is looking over the old mining area shown in the GE imagery, looking eastwards towards the plant. It has been rehabilitated and has cattle grazing all over it. The second photo is from the top of the plant looking at the scrubbers and recovery jigs. Some of the water recycling dams can be seen, and the newer mining areas directly south of the plant. They process 300 tonnes per hour, but operate on an environmental agreement to fence off 12ha at a time and rehabilitate as they go. It is a working cattle station. They have cattle troughs coming off their water cycles so obviously the farmer is happy in these drought times.

When you see the moonscape of old workings in the area this new type of mining is really impressive.

I will put up other mining areas I have visited.