I was reading the latest world mining journal today and come accross this. I thought I would post a link here. It seems in the land down under they use mills a little different than we do here in the states. I have heard them advertised for mining work, but the scale here is enormous. 14 Wirtgen mills loading haul trucks with iron ore! http://www.womp-int.com/story/2008vol7/story014.htm
the wirtgen miner weighs about 180 tonnes, cut 4200mm wide and 800 deep with an operational expectancy of 6k hours per annum. i had heard fortesque had 15 of the suckers, saves them blasting and crushing by using the surface miner.
Wirtgen - Surface Mining Interesting - At those production levels, it doesn't seem cost-effective to mine that way, I'd have to assume there's a good reason.
a link to the Fortescue web page http://www.fmgl.com.au/IRM/content/project_mining.htm
That miner/mill seems to get moving along pretty good.