Name of the Mine
Tomingley Gold Operations (TGO).

Location  
Tomingley covers the entirety of the north–south belt extending north about 25 km from Trewilga to Tomingley, in central west New South Wales, in Australia.

Mine Owner/s  
TGO, a wholly owned subsidiary of gold producer Alkane Resources.

Brief Description  
TGO includes the Wyoming 1, Caloma 1 and Caloma 2, all of which are now mined by underground operations.

The Roswell, San Antonio and McLeans deposits (Tomingley gold extension project, or TGEP) are open-pittable and underground resources. Stope ore production at Roswell started in April 2024.

The Peak Hill gold project – previously a fully operational openpit gold mine, comprising the main Propriety-Parkers pit and three satellite pits, Bobby Burns, Crown and Great Eastern – is not currently mined and is under care and maintenance. Alkane currently has no intention to restart mining operations at Peak Hill.

Brief History  
Openpit mining activity and onsite processing of ore at TGO started in 2014, and underground mining operations in 2019.

Primary Metals/Minerals  
Gold.

Secondary Metals/Minerals  
None stated.

Geology/Mineralisation  
The Tomingley mine is located in the central west of New South Wales near the eastern margin of the Junee-Narromine volcanic belt of the Macquarie Arc in the eastern Lachlan Orogen of eastern Australia.

The Tomingley deposits are located near the eastern margin of the Junee-Narromine volcanic belt, just east of the interpreted Parkes Thrust. This structure separates the flat-lying Ordovician Goonumbla volcanic complex from a thin slice of north–south-trending andesitic volcanics identified by regional aeromagnetic data and drilling, interpreted to be the Late Ordovician Mingelo volcanics.

The Mingelo volcanics are overlain by sediments thought to be equivalents of the Ordo-Silurian Cotton Formation, perhaps part of the Silurian Forbes Group. Drilling data at Tomingley intersects an angular unconformity between the sediments and underlying volcanics. The sediments comprise well-bedded fine quartzose sandstone and laminated siltstone with a diagnostic basal quartz-rich conglomerate.

The Ordovician rocks west of the Parkes Thrust are weakly deformed, with broad open folds and subgreenschist metamorphic assemblages. In contrast, the Ordovician-Silurian sequences east of the fault, including the rocks hosting the Tomingley deposits, exhibit tight to isoclinal folding with strong axial planar cleavage in greenschist metamorphic assemblages.

Reserves  
Total ore reserves as of June 30, 2024, were estimated at 11.76-million tonnes grading 1.9 g/t gold.

Resources  
Total mineral resources as of June 30, 2024, were estimated at 24.27-million tonnes grading 2.12 g/t gold.

Type of Mine
Tomingley is a junior opencut and underground mining operation.

Mining Method  
At Tomingley, openpit mining ceased in 2023, and the operation transitioned to fully underground mining at Wyoming 1, Caloma 1 and Caloma 2.

Two mining methods are used to mine the Tomingley underground reserves – bottom up longhole open stoping (LHOS) with uncemented or cemented rockfill, and top down LHOS with rib pillars and no fill.

Major Infrastructure/Equipment  
The underground specific infrastructure includes underground primary ventilation fans, secondary fans, portals, pumpstation, mobile equipment, compressors, HV to portals, electrical substations and rescue equipment.

Additional infrastructure was required in preparation for the start of mining and production from Roswell. The work on surface includes:

• access road,
• water pipeline,
• a 66 kV power line,
• site drainage,
• topsoil stockpiling,
• waste dump construction,
• residue storage dams,
• process water dams,
• associated offices,
• workshops,
• fuel, and
• laydown areas.

Sufficient site infrastructure has been built to process 1.1-million tonnes of ore a year.

The underground specific infrastructure in place includes:

• primary ventilation fans and 5-m-diameter return air rise to the surface,
• secondary fans,
• portals,
• a pumpstation,
• mobile equipment,
• compressors,
• HV reticulation to portals and underground workings,
• substations,
• rescue equipment,
• civil work and foundations for the paste plant,
• paste fill reticulation,
• boreholes, and
• piping.

Prospects  
The TGEP permits Alkane to extend gold mining operations to the San Antonio and Roswell resources immediately south of the existing mine.

Approval was granted in February 2023 until the end of 2032.

Alkane has approval to develop an underground mine at Roswell and one large opencut (comprising three stages of pit development within its footprint). The consent also permits realignment of the Newell Highway and another local road, a higher processing rate of 1.75-million tonnes a year, paste-filling of underground stopes at Roswell, and further wall-lifts to the second residue storage facility.

Contact Details
Alkane Resources
Tel +61 8 9227 5677
Email info@alkres.com
Website https://alkres.com/