The Toyota Landcruiser Owners Club

Sean · ** Joined: 04 Apr 2005 Posts: 96 Location: NoRonILand

Heres some photos of machines i found frozen in a mine in Greenland. closed since 1990.
One we were able to drive out. the rest need a bit more attention.
Mainly BJ45 s and a couple of early 75 series pickups

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Hilux Darren · ** Joined: 21 Feb 2008 Posts: 55 Location: South Devon

What a find are you bringing them/anything back. 18 years in a frozen mine and it still went amazing

tlocuk · Posted: Mon Dec 01, 2008 12:45 Post subject:

Amazing pictures! What a find!! Shocked

As an aside ... I have to ask ... is that a model helicopter in the first pic?

Simon Cool

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Grimbo · Posted: Mon Dec 01, 2008 19:26 Post subject:

Ditto on the heli, however looking closer I think its a real one .
Good find, they seem to have had a hard life Shocked

Sean · ** Joined: 04 Apr 2005 Posts: 96 Location: NoRonILand

yes that is a real helicopter in the background (it really does look like a model on a box:-))and that is the main form of access to the mine since the mine was closed. So theres about 5 landcruisers in the main mine that i know about (theres about 250km of tunnel), 2 we dragged out of a smaller mine near the helipad, at least one buried and lordy knows how many more there are lying undiscovered most the gear and demolished buidlings was stuffed into tunnels when the place closed. Theres one tunnel i have great hopes for thats blocked with the hulk of a tower crane on its side, beyond is a chamber the miners used to play soccer in during the winter months this i can only spectulate is stuffed full of old trucks and heavy duty gear capable of surviving such harsh climates. Its very dry in the there and glacier melt keeps the salt level down in the sea water fjord, this means the rust is not as bad as say in the UK / Ireland.

Grimbo · Posted: Mon Dec 01, 2008 22:31 Post subject:

Looking at the last pic, I can see the Pikeys already got there ! Laughing

, (caravan to left of pic )

Sean · ** Joined: 04 Apr 2005 Posts: 96 Location: NoRonILand

note target practice on the door and the mine enterence 600m up the cliff in the background, hence the need fo ra helicpter. This is a BJ75 a 3B engined machine, if i read the vin plate right on another one on site its circa 1988.

Hilux Darren · ** Joined: 21 Feb 2008 Posts: 55 Location: South Devon

spackrackman · *** Joined: 05 Apr 2007 Posts: 172 Location: Midlands

only just seen this thread. Amazing. How come you are allowed to be around there? CAn anyone go for a noisy? The chanc to explore stuff like that is amazing

Sean · ** Joined: 04 Apr 2005 Posts: 96 Location: NoRonILand

I work in the mining industry. I was overseeing the enabling works to get the mine up and running again. Access to this mine is particularly special via cable car across a fjord from the camp. The original cable car was installed in 1972, the mine shut in 1990 and the cables cut . until the cable car is reenstated the only way to get to the mine enterance is by landing a particular sized helicopter on a deck and climbing down 120m of cliff to the portals.

Getting to the mine just for a visit is logistically and financially expensive. In its current state no visitors are allowed.

trying to get a landcruiser off site would not be worth it. even the BJ75s were modern when the mine shut in 1990 they were not considered worth salvagable.

I done a brief inspection of the landcruisers on site and have a list of repair kits /parts needed to get some of them running again.

Today in the middle of the dark windy Arctic winter you cannot land a helicopter on the hillside, there may be a possibility of driving on the sea ice Wink

This Monday I'm off to the very top of mainland Norway to look at a mine that shut in 1997 and still has the most northern operating locomotive.

hers some more piccies of the site.... a bit off the topic of landcruisers...

Heres shift change 120m above the mine enterance. on the helipad 720m above sea level and 1400m distance from the mine camp across the fjord, just about visable in the lower right of the picture.

This is the quad coming into the sling platform. during the 2008 season this quad was the only form of transport in the 300 odd km of tunnel. hence we are wanting to get the landcruisers up and running.

heliport at the camp. see the 2 black dots on the mountain? theyre a set of mine portals 300m down from the helipad in the top picture.which as you cannot see is not visable.

spackrackman · *** Joined: 05 Apr 2007 Posts: 172 Location: Midlands

Thanks for replying!!! a little pissed at the mo.. but hey ho.. How come there are mine enterances so high up the cliff faces? what is mined here? and why do they want to restart them after 18 years of being shut down? ... questions questions...

Hilux Darren · ** Joined: 21 Feb 2008 Posts: 55 Location: South Devon

What a job you've got views like that must make the hard work worthwhile.

Sean · ** Joined: 04 Apr 2005 Posts: 96 Location: NoRonILand

whys the mine enterance there?
stuff that you want to mine is rarely found at the market gate. Greenland is one big glacier with steep rocky clifves around the edge, 600m up from sea level is were the metal ore is . the cost of building a road up to that level and stablising the entire mountainside was too much compared to slinging a cable car across.

why reopen it?
metal prices were high in 2005-07 and theres now new extraction techniques that justify the reopening.

as for views. 24hr light in the summer.
I had whales, seals and arctic foxes frolicking outside my office window, glaciers tumbling down mountiains into fjords and sexy red helicoptors to fly around in.

Graham Smith · *** Joined: 13 Jan 2008 Posts: 127 Location: Poole, UK

Sean · ** Joined: 04 Apr 2005 Posts: 96 Location: NoRonILand