Moving The A Mega Gold Extractor From Belgium to Russia | Mega Transports | S3E01

0:01 a true Colossus weighing over 1,000 tons the so-called autoclave extracts gold from Stone this is the largest autocave in the world built in Western Europe operational location deep in Eastern Russia on its Journey there it must contend with motorways and bridges the water level of the now will rise and then you're stuck underneath the bridge weather conditions in Russia means transport is Possible only during a few weeks each year for all involved a Race Against Time and a true Mega transport [Music]

0:53 [Applause] [Music] G in the northeast of Belgium the mega transports departure point for the past 2 and 1/2 years a specialist company has constructed This Very Special Machine in a few hours this giant will begin a journey that will take it halfway around the world it is as high as a house with 7 and 1/2 m in diameter and at 51 m in length it is as long as four trucks lined up one behind the

1:38 [Music] other and what's more it is as heavy as two fully loaded a380s 1,100 tons a Colossus made of steel and titanium built for one purpose to extract the most sought-after metal in the world pure gold in Times Gone by Wars have been fought and whole continents conquered for [Music] gold state-of-the-art technology enables the brand new autoclave to extract up to 18 tons of gold per year an absolute

2:28 record gold caring minerals are being mixed with pure oxygen under high pressure inside the autoclave the process is known as pressure oxidation a chemical reaction is created which causes the Gold to be released from the minerals the mega transport's major challenge any kind of impact could severely damage the technology installed within the autoclave [Music] at the Belgium departure point the transport crew has loaded the autoclave onto two self-propelled modular Transporters spmt and are maneuvering it out of the

3:15 hall responsible for the first stage of the transport to the National border is paa Den just look everywhere where we have the space you know and then uh from there we go we got all kind of steering programs on the trailer so we can shift the rear shift the front so the first few meters are being taken by the mega transport expected time of arrival at its Russian destination is in 65 days from the departure point in Gil Belgium the journey follows roads and rivers to antw worp from there a heavy lift cargo ship will take the autoclave to one of the eastern most sea ports in Russia the route then follows the river Amur to the

4:02 gold plant a total of 25,000 [Applause] [Music] km the major problem is that the transport on the Amur river is Possible only during a period of some weeks each year the river level is otherwise too high if the team misses the window they will have to wait a whole year until they can finally reach the destination ation Amor a town with 40,000 inhabitants its hub is a gold plant for months a team has been making preparations for the arrival of the state-of-the-art machine 13 tons of gold are being produced here every year the

4:47 gigantic autoclave is intended to more than double production each day of delay will mean a loss for the gold producer in Belgium transport supervisor Peta and his team are maneuvering the autoclave out of the production Hall so far everything is going according to plan now we got to lower it down and leave it for all of this then we have to put some lights on for the police for tonight for night transport so under Belgian law heavy Goods transports are allowed only one night a week from Tuesday to Wednesday any problems occurring now would therefore delay the mega transport start by a

5:35 whole [Music] week meanwhile a heavyduty barge to take the autoclave to the sea port of antw worp has arrived at the first interim stop on the journey the barge is 76 M long with a payload of 1,800 tons the major challenge for loading at 8 M45 the bar's hold is only slightly wider than the gigantic autoclave the Colossus is too heavy to lift into the barge with a crane the crew therefore plan to use a ramp to

6:22 carefully drive it on [Music] board it's the load it's heavy and it's large so for the bars it's probably a big thing yeah could get really close but if all of us got one side then we can see if how it goes and if something goes wrong then we call to each other before loading the autoclave onto the barge Peter's team first has to transport it to the pier the first challenge for the Mega transport the distance from the factory to the canal is quite short at 1 1/2 km but on the way the team must cross a Motorway the only option is to drive

7:08 straight across the [Music] carriageways 22:30 the mega transport will begin in half an hour the stage to the canal has a tight timetable the team needs to cross the motorway between midnight and 1:00 sharp then the special permit expires transport supervisor Peta makes one last check just getting over the highway and then if you get some problems it's a challenge but yeah we got it under control so hopefully an armada of support Vehicles escorts the mega

7:56 transport okay at 23-hour sharp it's time to [Applause] go to prevent the enormous weight of over 1,000 tons from damaging the road the transporter has extra Wheels 240 in all these distribute the weight I'm just listening to the tires normally if they spin you can hear it you know and that's something is wrong with fortunately everything sounds normal at the moment the route firstly follows a narrow road with only a few centimeters space on each side to

8:42 maneuver perer and his team use radios to communicate with the driver because he can't see what's happening in front of the self-propelled modular [Music] transporter yeah sco is that going to scoot this Dave they soon reached the motorway at midnight sharp the last truck passes by the police then stop the traffic the team now has exactly 1 hour to cross the [Music] [Applause] [Music] motorway a few days earlier they'd prepared everything for this crucial

9:28 moment a 12 M wide section of the crash barrier has been unbolted a fort Lift Truck Now takes it away the preparation has saved valuable time the road is clear but the mega transport is not yet able to cross the motorway the unpaved ground between the carriageways is too soft now there some dirt you know so that's why we're going to put for safety we're got to put some plates down there so we don't going to sink uh in the ground in 40 minutes the motorway needs to be opened

10:15 [Music] [Applause] again okay keep driving Sten 30 minutes to go it should be able to cross now meter by meter the team Maneuvers the enormous machine across the four-lane motorway The Crossing takes 20 minutes they finally make it just before the roadblock ends

11:04 time for a short breather Steven I'm out front [Applause] again I'll watch this corner here watch out this part's pretty tricky you have to see how it [Applause] works the route now continues to the main road along a narrow temporary Road oh we're just going at this way and then we go backwards uh to The Jetty the team first drives forwards in the opposite direction onto the main road and then continues in Reverse towards the canal this avoids timec

11:50 consuming maneuvering police have cordon off the road so the route is clear [Music] but two trucks have ignored the roadblocks and are now stuck in the middle of the road transport supervisor perer is angry hey I thought it was blocked what are these guys doing here it's costing valuable time they're not even halfway to the pier yet the transport's arrival is expected there in about one half

12:35 hours after getting past the trucks they make good progress at around 7 km per hour and make up for lost [Music] time at 2:00 in the morning 3 hours after departing the production Hall the mega transport reaches its intended stop at the pier the team is satisfied and tired d tomorrow is another day the first stage has been

13:21 completed the journey continues early next morning today the team is to load the huge and heavy autoclave onto the barge to be able to load it safely the team need to immobilize the barge they have therefore installed a wooden platform underwater the barge is then positioned above it with cenm Precision the ballast water tanks will therefore be flooded to lower the barge until it is sitting on the platform this is the only way to make the barge sufficiently stable to drive on the spmt with its load of over 1,000

14:08 tons before they start perer and his team go through the safety measures I don't want to see anybody on that barge but the boys from ha if someone has to get on it it has to be all in the back so we have ese despite all the precautions loading is still hazardous the challenging is is the barge to drive it in the barge that has to be go smooth really smooth you know and take your time for it because we have to do some balting if you're not doing balancing right yeah you can tip over and we don't want to do that so we have to take off time for that the barge is not yet in

14:58 position barge supervisor mikil DT is responsible for positioning the previous day he measured out the moing point and placed down several [Music] markers we have to push with 800 tons on the concrete and that's only on the strong points so that's the measurement we did on the key side specific areas on the pier have been specially reinforced only the surfaces here can withstand the enormous loads that will be created during loading a diver has to ensure that the barge really is in the right position

15:44 only when he gives the okay does the crew start lowering the [Music] barge to help the diver find his way around the team has left ropes in the water as markers here it's 50 cm from the ground same in the middle okay that's good the diver carefully checks along the full length of the [Music] barge the platform lies nicely straight under the pontoon

16:31 great that fits okay n we wait until the diver is out of the water and then we can start the ballast pumps okay I'm going to take another measurement the crew now pumps around 1,000 L of water into the bar's ballist water tanks the additional weight causes it to sink and sit on the platform form meanwhile the transport team installs the special ramp which the autoclave will roll over onto the barge one last check of the self-propelled modular

17:17 transporter then we ready to rock and roll get it on the barge P has planned that 3 hours will be required to travel the 100 m they need to be extremely careful especially at the beginning despite the underwater platform the barge could still tip over due to the extreme one-sided load after just a few meters stop driving break for a moment Steven now we have to do some balting we have to wait for the rear pump to give Water

18:05 Peter yeah we wait go on Mel to compensate for the weight of the autoclave the crew now need to pump out ballast water after Supervisor mckel has given his okay the process continues okay Steven just take it easy 2 m out if the barge tips due to the enormous load the several million dooll autoclave and its sensitive technology inside could be seriously damaged the team therefore makes its way forward in Tiny

18:52 [Music] Steps okay okay Steven drive safe again [Music] after 3 and 1/2 hours only a little later than planned the job is done the autoclave is on the barge I'm happy everything went well perfect good operation there is no time to rest the special purpose machine is expected in Russia where it will extract gold from Rock but before the autoclave gets to Russia it needs to be unloaded and reloaded

19:40 several times and will battle against a once in a century flood the mega transports next stage covers 45 km along a canal to the seap port of antor where an oceangoing vessel awaits it on the way the barge will pass through two locks and under numerous [Music] Bridges the barge is ready to cast off Captain anony veston starts the two engines each with 620 horsepower there are two bridges that where the height is getting a little bit critical due to the to the thing that is standing in the in the in

20:26 the barge clearance on both Bridges is just a few centim good morning the Kina 10 we're now ready to cast off at the bridge near G after the captain has registered with the shipping authorities the next stage of the mega transport begins according to the plan it should arrive at the next interim stop the sea port of antor in about 6 hours [Music] [Applause] after a few kilomet the barge reaches the first obstacle a lock to negotiate a drop of 8

21:19 m entering the lock is normally no problem but the autoclave in the hole means the barge is not as easy to maneuver as as normal because it's big and heavy and now it will yeah react a little bit slower because yeah because of the load this presents a problem if as now only one meter of space is available on each side then it happens the barge Rams the lock wall fenders mobile protective bumpers fortunately prevent any serious damage

22:07 [Applause] soon after the barge is safely moed in the lock it takes half an hour to drop 8 m Captain Antony takes special care to maneuver out of the lock a few hundred M ahead lies the next obstacle the first of the two critical Bridges we have to calculate with the canal with the canal clearance and with the with the canal level the canal level because there are locks when they push some water out the level can rise and if you have like 2 cm of clearance on the

22:52 bridge that will mean uh if they let water out at that time the water level of the canal will rise and then you're stuck underneath the bridge a clearance of at least 10 cm between the bridge and the load is therefore required otherwise it will be necessary to wait for the canal level to drop the captain uses unconventional methods to keep an eye on everything while still being able to react quickly in the event of an emergency the bar moves slowly under the bridge the crew can only hope that water isn't being drained from the lock at the

23:41 moment made it the mega transport has overcome this obstacle but there is one bridge that is even more critical than this one this one is rated at 7 m and 6 cm the next low bridge will be at medicum at the D they call it the dock of medicum that bridge will be around 680 this means clearance on this bridge is 25 cm lower but it's still 3 hours away the barge crew can relax for a moment meanwhile the Freer which is to take the autoclave to Russia has already arrived at the sea port of antwork the NV svena is one of the biggest and most powerful Freighters in

24:28 the world World each of their two cranes can lift up to 1,000 tons a record for a cargo [Music] ship the crew of the svenia is currently preparing the steel cables which they will use to lift the autoclave on board each cable measures 15 cm in diameter the material is to prevent the autoclave from being scratched in the hold a platform has already been constructed on which the autoclave will sit during the [Music] crossing the Second Officer Fortunato bellico called lucky checks its position

25:16 while the cargo is on the hook then we don't have any more chance to bring it out and reposition this wtch brother so we must make sure that is really um measured properly the deck is being reinforced where the autoclave transport supports will sit while the crew of the svena are making the final preparations the barge and its valuable cargo approaches the next critical point the lowest bridge on the entire Journey the slightest bow ways from other barges could meet disaster here the cut Arina 10 for you this

26:04 bridge is the crucial part of our journey so please just slow down we have to cross that bridge slowly afterwards you can overtake us okay we need to dark soon anyway okay clearance has been calculated at just 10 cm it will be a tight one this one just slightly touching the bridge can mean millions of dollars in damage and a mega transport being [Music] cancelled made it the barge has now

26:50 passed the final obstacle along the canal it's now just a few kilometers to the sea port of ANW worp where the autoclave will be transferred from the barge to the cargo [Music] ship the trip went very well everything went as calculated so I'm very pleased with the with the end result of the trip after a 6-hour journey the mega transport has reached the interim stop as planned the captain birs his barge alongside the cargo ship to avoid losing valuable time the next morning after all there is only

27:36 a small time window in which the transport to Russia is possible day three of the mega transport in 2 hours the team aimed to lift the 1,000 ton Colossus into the hold of the swena all involved go over the procedure once more the crane operators have the most difficult task to get the autoclave on board the cargo ship both cranes of the svena need to be used together the big challenge is to prevent the autoclave from swaying in a worst case scenario the lifting cables could break under the

28:22 enormous load the two crane operators therefore need to perfectly coordinate their maneuver Maneuvers the first step the crane lifting cables are attached to each end of the autoclave the crane operators carefully lower the cables The Dock Workers put them around the autoclave like a sling it's hard work because a cable weighs around 400 kgs [Applause] the other half of the steel sling is still missing boom up right up

29:09 down um swing right number one the ends of the cables are connected using a 500 kilo shackle to form a sling a cotter pin prevents the shackle bolt from becoming loose or even worse from open opening under the enormous [Music] [Applause] [Music] load now the cable just needs positioning watch your fingers coming up after an hour the autoclave is attached to the first crane Fu then it's the turn of the other end

29:59 suddenly there's a problem the B of the sh is on one of the covers open now yeah the cutter pin on one of the shackles has opened this means everything must stop unfortunately the cutter pin strike on one the protruder part on the top and it was open accidentally so we have to lock it again to prevent any um accident later on the teams work together to solve the problem loading can

30:47 continue half an hour later than planned the second crane has also been attached [Music] so my job here now is finish I have to come up on the ship and wait when the cargo is coming there I will take over in the next step the crane operators must very slowly apply tension to the ropes lifting too jerkily can throw the huge cargo ship out of balance almost almost coming uping completely the autoclave full weight of 1,100 tons hangs from the two cranes the

31:33 crane operators raise it up to deck level Lucky's task is to ensure that the 50 m steel Colossus is always hanging level in the air Eric is as soon as the autoclave is high enough they maneuver it over the cargo hold between the two [Music] cranes lucky and his crew observe the maneuver from different angles this is the only way they can keep an eye on every corner of the huge autoclave and

32:20 quickly stop it if it risks hitting something made it more speed hook down number one more speed now the crane operators lower the load very slowly and now want to maintain the height to ensure the autoclave sits securely during the entire one month sea Voyage the crane operators must lower it down with centimet Precision to a previously calculated position the crew use wooden blocks to compensate for even minor height

33:07 differences under the transport supports the cargo is on position now right we will switch off the crate and will go for a break the crew has earned it despite all the difficulties and obstacles the mega transport remains on schedule before the swena sets off for Russia the crew needs to lash down the very expensive and sensitive cargo nothing must move even in 10 m high waves before setting sail lucky needs to check every single lashing wire more than 50 wires are required to

33:54 secure the more than 1,000 ton high-tech machine the so-called autoclave that will one day extract gold from [Music] Stone so everything is okay we are ready to go we are ready for sailing the crew doesn't waste any time the svena sets off in the middle of the night on her more than 20,000 km Journey halfway around the world she is scheduled to arrive there in 31 days any delay can mean that weather conditions in Russia have worsened and

34:42 make the mega transport impossible the route first goes around Europe it then proceeds through the straight of jalter and the Suez Canal and then crosses the Indian Ocean towards Eastern Russia in the sea port of dast the crew will hand over the autoclave to another barge this will then transport it along the river Amore for the final 1,200 km to its destination the crew has luck on their side the weather has been good for the entire journey and they are approaching the Russian East Coast nautical mile by

35:29 nautical mile Full Speed Ahead at 18 knots in the country's interior at the destination around the gold Factory in Amor preparations are already in full swing an access road to the river and a pier have been specially built for the Mega transport the autoclave is due to arrive here in 2 weeks although everything so far has been running right on schedule transport supervisor Alexis shamco has a major worry last week we have the highest water level measured for this season in 100 years our Pier here is designed for different water levels and different ships but nobody expected such a

36:16 flood the water is almost 2 m higher than normal at this time of year parts of the pier are flooded if the flood does not recede they cannot unload the autoclave and in a worst case scenario they would have to wait a whole year in the meantime the svena has reached the port of dicastri as planned after a 31-day voyage from here the mega transport departs on the final leg of its Journey 1,200 km along the river Amore right across Russia's uninhabited

37:05 lands after 10 days the barge reaches its destination Amor where the specialist machine is needed to start extracting gold but workers there are still struggling with the floods nobody knows at the moment whether they can unload the autoclave at all the river level is still much too high but the team wants to make an attempt the first thing transport supervisor Alexis's team needs to do is to ensure that the strong current does not cause the barge to drift these are brand new ropes I bought

37:53 them especially the current is quite strong and the cargo is very heavy I was afraid that the old ropes of the barge could not stand the strain and would tear that's why I quickly got new ropes just to be on the safe side the current is so strong that three tugs are needed to push together at full power to prevent the barge drifting during moing Alexis's worst nightmare is that the barge could tear loose during the unloading maneuver he therefore has

38:39 additional steel cables attached and orders the tugs to stay put until the autoclave is unloaded the autoclave is unloaded using an spmt again the team has therefore built a heavyduty ramp from Shore to barge which is made up of multiple sections the angle between the ramp sections must not exceed 1.8 de only then will the spmt be able to drive over the ramp with its load weighing over 1,000 tons the team uses a crane to position the ramp each of the 10 sections weighs 16 tons the ramp has been specially

39:26 constructed for the mega transport but the flood means the sections no longer fit perfectly simply did not expect such extreme Flooding at the moment the barge is higher than the pier this means that the ramp Parts in the middle no longer fit perfectly into each other and now we have a kink there transporter can't run over it the major Hazard is that the spmt could come into contact with the Kink

40:13 between the ramp sections and then tip over the plan is to lower the barge by filling the ballast tanks until the ramp sections fit into each other again Alexa's colleague Nikita daniloff takes charge of this the engineer has spent hours calculating how best to distribute the additional ballast water just halfhazard lowering the barge won't work the barge must lie completely level on the water surface when we move the cargo it has be 100% level otherwise it

40:59 can be very dangerous for the workers and for the freight even the slightest inclination can cause the transporter to tip over together with the loan the engineer instructs the crew to fill the bar's ballast water tanks [Music] but no matter what they do the kink in the ramp remains but waiting until the water level drops is not an option either at the moment the weather forecast is not so great it's also not supposed to get better which means the level will not

41:45 fall it's more likely to get worse Alex decides to test the ramp with the unloaded spmt then he'll decide what whether to unload the autoclave from the barge the biggest Hazard is that the spmt comes into contact with the Kink and get stuck unloaded this is not a big problem but with the autoclave weighing 1,000 tons the spmt could tip [Music] over after an hour the spmt is positioned on the barge Alexi makes a decision he wants to attempt unloading the next

42:33 day tomorrow will be a very important day in the morning we will fix and check everything again then we start getting prepared for unloading we have to pay very close attention to the water movement current I hope everything goes according to plan All That Remains now is for nature to play along and for the river level to stop Rising the next morning the team has been lucky the river level has remained the same overnight this was essential for them to risk unloading before the unloading starts

43:21 every tiny detail is rechecked [Music] almost everything is ready now the spmt and the load are prepared everything is actually ready to un to make sure that everything is 200% safe we install some last fastenings we retighten everything again and then hopefully we can startop the next few hours are crucial for the success of the mega transport if they fail to unload the autoclave now they will have to wait a whole year until next summer only then

44:09 will the river level be lower Again by early afternoon the preparations are finally completed the autoclave rolls off the barge in slow motion the first few meters are no problem but then comes the critical point the connection between the ramp sections if the heavily loaded transporter just comes into minor contact with the Kink they must stop immediately and shunt back the risk would be too great for the spmt tipping over along with the autoclave

44:56 [Music] it's nail biting and lasts until the early [Music] evening they then finally achieve it the gigantic autoclave is on land Alexi and his team breathe a sigh of relief the hardest part of the operation getting this giant colos from the BGE we've successfully managed everything went well and we hope everything will go well on the road now all we have to do is get through town and unloaded at its

45:45 destination at night the mega transport then departs for its final kilometers first it takes a temporary Road way towards the [Music] town the mega transport has a large police contingent across the small town being so close to the destination the transport team won't be slowed down by the odd obstacle in the [Music] way the team needs to cover cover a total of 10 km along the [Music]

46:35 road at noon the next day the mega transport finally reaches its destination the gold plant on the one hand I'm quite tired but on the other hand I'm of course very happy that the end of this difficult project is in sight it was very nerve-wracking and complicated but we did a good job despite the enormous weight of the autoclave and the difficult conditions we successfully transported the autocave no one in Russia has ever done anything like this

47:21 before and now there's only 200 M to go we'll make [Music] it 25,000 km in just 65 days along the way the teams crossed motorways drove down narrow roads and under bridges and successfully battled against a once in a century flood a unique Mega transport with a special purpose to extract tons of gold