Location Norseman Country Australia Financial year 2014-15 | State Western Australia Production 23,637oz Opened 1940s | |
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The Norseman Gold Mine is a gold mine located at Norseman, Western Australia.
Contents
It is operated by Norseman Gold Plc and is Australia’s longest continuously running gold mining operation. The Norseman area lies at the southern end of the Norseman-Wiluna Greenstone Belt. Norseman Gold plc is a private gold production and exploration company de-listed from the ASX. Its key asset is the Norseman Project, which lies at the Eastern Goldfields Province of the Yilgarn Block, Western Australia.
History
Gold was first discovered in the region at Dundas, 22 km south of present-day Norseman, followed in August 1894 by a gold discovery near the future town of Norseman itself, by Laurie Sinclair his brother George Sinclair & Jack Alsopp, the deposit was named the Norseman Reward after his horse, Hardy Norseman. The family came to Western Australia in December 1863 from The shetland Isles.
In 1935, a new era of mining begun for the town, when Western Mining arrived in the region and invested in its infrastructure.
Operated by Central Norseman Gold Corporation Ltd, a subsidiary of Western Mining, the mine became effectively owned by Croesus Mining NL in February 2002, when Croesus purchased WMC's 50.5% share of the company for A$75 million. Croesus Mining went into administration in June 2006, after gold production levels at Norseman fell short of hedging commitments.
The mine was operated by Central Norseman Gold until April 2007, when it passed into the ownership of Davos Gold Pty Ltd, now Norseman Gold, who purchased it for a sum in excess of A$60 million The Norseman Gold Mine had been in administration for eleven months at the time of the sale and had been in operation for more than 65 years, producing in excess of 5.5 million ounces of gold in that time.
The mine was run as an underground operation only, with two declines being mined, Bullen and Harlequin. A third decline, named OK, commenced production in 2010.
On 5 August 2010, an underground miner at the mine was found dead at a new escape rise. There was a further fatality at the Harlequin underground mine after a rockfall collapse in February 2014.
Norseman Gold announced in February 2012 that Tulla Resources is their new strategic partner. Tulla is an Australian resources company and the family vehicle of the Maloney family, ran MAC Services, that was sold to Oil States International for A$650 million.
Current gold mining operations as at August 2015 include the Harlequin mine and Phoenix Mill.
Production and Resource
A statement of current mineral resource was made on 1 September 2014. In summary, the Company is reporting a total Resource of 2.1 million ounces of gold. No Reserves are reported.
Treatment
A gold processing plant at Phoenix, near the North Royal Open Pit, uses a form of conventional milling and carbon-in-leach technology to recover gold. Water in processing is obtained from a bore-field for the mining operations. Power is supplied on-site from a third part power station, which also supplies power to the Norseman Township. The capacity of the processing facility is approximately 720,000 tonnes per annum.
Exploration and development
The Norseman Project area has a great deal of potential for more high-grade gold mines to be developed. Considerably more data has been obtained and a number of new Exploration programmes are ongoing. Magnetite iron ore also exists within the Noganyer Formation. Thousands of metres of geological logging records and drill core assessments together with historic pulp drill samples means that a conventional iron ore project could be made viable if iron ore prices improve. The Project has a number of future opportunities which includes three previously operating underground mines, Bullen, OK and Crown. The company announced further drilling results from the Harlequin area in August 2015 from RC drilling at five holes below the planned HV5 open pit.