Location Boddington Country Australia Financial year 2008-09 | State Western Australia Production none Founded 2002 | |
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Opened Original plant: 1987; Expansion Project: July 2009 Company Newmont Mining Corporation Parent organization Newmont Boddington Pty Ltd | ||
Newmont boddington gold mine
The Boddington Gold Mine is a gold and copper mine located 13 km northwest of Boddington, Western Australia.
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Officially reopened on 3 February 2010, the mine has now become Australia's largest gold mine, eclipsing the Super Pit with an expected production of ~750,000oz in 2015.
Boddington gold mine blast south pit
History
A large open-cut mining operation, it commenced in 1987 and ceased mining on 30 November 2001 after the known oxide ore resource had been processed.
Partly owned by Normandy Mining (44.44%), Acacia Resources (33.33%) and Newcrest Mining (22.23%), the Normandy share was acquired by Newmont when it took over the company in 2002, while AngloGold took over Acacia.
In 2005, Newcrest sold its interest in the Boddington mine for A$225 million, also to Newmont Mining.
A bedrock resource of almost 20 million ounces was identified and expansion of the facility to allow mining and processing of basement rock was approved in 2002. Construction on the expansion project began in May 2006. When it achieves full nameplate throughput, it will become Australia's largest gold mine.
On 29 January 2009, Newmont announced that it had raised $1.5 billion to acquire AngloGold's ownership position of 33% in the mine and thus became sole owner. Now fully owned by Newmont Mining, the mine reopened in 2009 after a major expansion project that increased the throughput to become Australia's largest gold mine.
In 2005, EPCM contract was warded to Clough. In 2006, the EPCM contract was awarded to Aker Kvaerner. In 2010, ThyssenKrupp Robins had set up the High Pressure Grinding Rolls using the drive system provided by ABB. The Environmental impact statement for the most recent expansion in 2013 was developed by Strategen Environmental Consultants. Macmohan was assigned for the gold mining operations.
The official startup was on 23 July 2009. The mine is estimated to have a 20-year life and will produce more than 1,000,000 ounces of gold per year. The official opening of the mine was on 3 February 2010, conducted by Western Australian Premier Colin Barnett.
Newmont Mining's first 1 million ounces at Boddington was achieved in March 2011.
The mine is within the Saddleback Greenstone Belt, an Archaean structure in the southwestern Yilgarn Craton.