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Agnew mine, Australia

4th November 2016

By: Sheila Barradas

Creamer Media Research Coordinator & Senior Deputy Editor

  

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Name: Agnew mine.

Location: The mine is situated in the Norseman-Wiluna greenstone belt, 23 km west of Leinster, in Western Australia.

Controlling Company: Gold Fields, through its subsidiary Agnew Gold Mining Company (AGMC).

Brief Description: The Agnew mine consists of Waroonga and New Holland underground mines. At Waroonga, ore is sourced from the Kim, Fitzroy and Bengal (FBH) lodes, as well as the Main North lodes that are accessed using declines. The New Holland mine sources its ore from the Genesis 500, Cinderella and Sheba areas.
It is estimated that the current mineral reserves will be depleted in 2019.

Brief History: The discovery and subsequent mining of the Waroonga, Glasgow Lass, New Holland and Cinderella areas all started before 1899. East Murchison United mined nine underground levels at Main lode from 1935 until 1948.
Western Mining Corporation (WMC) bought the Waroonga leases in 1976 and Forsayth acquired the Great Eastern leases in 1984, with modern openpit mining starting at Waroonga (450 South) and Lawlers in the mid-1980s. Additional discoveries at Redeemer (1985) Cox-Crusader (1987) and Genesis (1990) ensured that the Emu and Lawlers mills operated at capacity, while additional openpit discoveries at New Holland (1991) and Fairyland (1997) were made before underground mining started at New Holland in 1998.

The Lawlers operation was acquired by Plutonic Resources from Forsayth in 1992 and was, subsequently, acquired by Homestake in 1998. During 2001, Barrick Gold merged with Homestake, and Gold Fields acquired Agnew from WMC. The Kim South lode at Waroonga was discovered in 2002, as was the Songvang openpit, with production starting at the projects in 2002 and 2004 respectively. Further discoveries were made at the Fairyland underground mine (2009) and FBH in 2012. Gold Fields concluded the acquisition of the neighbouring Lawlers mine from Barrick in October 2013.

Products: Gold.

Geology/Mineralisation: The Agnew mine is situated in the northern portion of the Norseman-Wiluna greenstone belt. The belt comprises a sequence of mafic to ultramafic volcanics and associated interflow sediments, which have been folded to form the Lawlers anticline.

The Lawlers anticline drops in a northerly direction at about 30°. The core of the anticline has been intruded by granodiorite, which, in turn, has been intruded by late-stage leucogranite. The mafic and ultramafic volcanics of the Lawlers anticline are unconformably overlain by a sequence of clastic sediments, comprising the Scotty Creek formation. The sedimentary rocks have been metamorphosed to lower greenschist facies and consist of conglomerates and very fine- to very coarse-grained pebbly sandstones and siltstones. The rocks within the AGMC mining leases are predominantly covered by transported alluvium and minor residual soils or localised thick accumulations of Permian sedimentary rocks blanketed by more recent clay and sediments.

The Agnew deposits are broadly hosted by the intersections between various structures and the relative stratigraphy. Gold mineralisation mostly occurs in quartz veins within the sedi- mentary units of the Scotty Creek formation.

Reserves: Proven and probable mineral reserves as at December 31, 2015, were estimated at 3.38-million tonnes, grading 6.16 g/t gold.

Resources: Mineral resources as at December 31, 2015, were estimated at 16.35-million tonnes, grading 5.05 g/t gold.

Mining Method: Waroonga – long-hole sublevel stoping with paste fill. New Holland – retreat up-hole, long-hole stoping.

Major Infrastructure and Equipment: Agnew comprises two underground complexes and a 1.3-million-tonne-a-year processing plant consisting of a three-stage crushing circuit, two-stage milling circuit, gravity circuit and carbon-in-pulp circuit.

Prospects: Agnew has an intensified focus on defining new ore sources at New Holland and Waroonga, in conjunction with targeted exploration programmes testing an expanded area beyond current mining fronts. These include Waroonga North and the underexplored Cinderella trend.

The objective is to increase the mineral resource and reserve bases to generate a new high-grade backbone to sustain a robust five-year plan supported by an improved understanding of the broader regional targets to discover the next generation of mines.

Contact Person: Sven Lunsche.
Contact Details:
Gold Fields,
tel +27 11 562 9763,
email media@goldfields.com, and
website https://www.goldfields.com.

Edited by Tracy Hancock
Creamer Media Contributing Editor

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