Name: Golden Grove mine.
Location: The Golden Grove mine is located in Western Australia, about 450 km north-east of Perth and 280 km east of Geraldton.
Holding and Controlling Company: On December 30, 2016, MMG entered into a conditional share sale agreement with EMR Golden Grove Holdings, an entity owned and managed by EMR Capital, for the purchase of MMG Golden Grove for $210-million. Economic risk and benefit of the Golden Grove mine were passed to EMR BidCo from January 1, 2017, and the share sale agreement was completed on February 28, 2017.
Brief Description: Golden Grove is a base and precious metals mine. It comprises underground and surface operations at Gossan Hill and Scuddles, located 4 km apart, and site processing facilities.
Brief History: Volcanogenic-hosted massive sulphide mineralization was discovered at Gossan Hill in 1971 and at Scuddles in 1979.
Golden Grove mine has been producing zinc, copper and precious metal concentrates since 1990. Scuddles started underground operations in 1990, while Gossan Hill underground operations started producing in 1998.
The mine was initially owned and operated by Australian Consolidated Minerals. Normandy Mining purchased the mine in November 1991. Newmont Australia acquired the assets of Normandy Mining in February 2002.
Newmont Australia sold the mine to Oxiana in June 2005. Oxiana collaborated with Zinifex in 2008 to form OZ Minerals. China Minmetals Subsidiary Miinerals and Metals Group acquired the property from OZ Minerals in June 2009.
Openpit mining started at Gossan Hill in January 2012 and completed in 2015. Openpit mining at Scuddles mine started in 2016.
Products: The mine produces zinc in zinc concentrate, copper in copper concentrate and high precious metals concentrate.
Geology/Mineralisation: Mining at Golden Grove targets sphalerite, chalcopyrite, pyrite and galena minerals to extract zinc, copper and lead ores.
Reserves: Total proven and probable reserves as at June 30, 2016, were estimated at 1.9-million tonnes grading 0.78% copper, 11.8% zinc, 1.5% lead, 9.8 g/t silver (Ag) and 2.9 g/t gold (Au).
Resources: Total underground resources as at June 30, 2016, were estimated at 17.04-million tonnes grading 379 000 t copper, 1.16-million tonnes zinc, 88 600 t lead, 26.4-million ounces silver and 580 000 oz gold.
Total inferred resources as at June 30, 2016, were estimated at 0.01-million tonnes grading 60 g/t Ag and 1.5 g/t Au.
Mining Method: Underground, sublevel open stoping.
Major Infrastructure and Equipment: Underground drill rigs are used to drill horizontal holes into the rock face. Once drilled these holes are charged with explosives and blasted to loosen the rock. The blasted rock is then removed by loader.
The development jumbos install a mixture of rock bolts and mesh, cable bolts and shotcrete to ensure the walls and ceilings of the tunnels are stable and provide safe access.
Production drill rigs then drill 30-m- to 40-m-long holes from one level to another. These are also loaded with explosives and blasted.
The ore is then hauled by trucks to the surface for crushing and processing. Processing of ore at Golden Grove begins at the run-of-mine pad, where it is fed into a crusher. Here, the ore is crushed from about 300 mm into pieces of about 100 mm.
Ore is transported by conveyor and stockpiled. Stockpiled ore is taken to the mill where it is broken down further using a two-stage wet grinding circuit that includes a primary semi autogenous grinding (SAG) mill and secondary ball mill, cyclone cluster and a pebble crusher to treat oversize material from the SAG mill.
The mining operation is powered by 132 kv power from Three Springs. The company also has a 3 MW diesel powered generator that is used as a back-up in cases of power outages.
Water for the mining operation is provided by water bores. It is treated and stored on site for use at the camp village as well as the mining operations generally.
The mine includes a 600-room camp.
Prospects: Three storage facilities have been built at Golden Grove to contain taillings during processing over the life-of-mine.
The first two storage facilities have been decommissioned and remaining process water evaporated. An erosional cover is also in place, where appropriate to prevent dust generation.
Golden Grove is now using the third facility, which has sufficient capacity for remaining mine life.
Planning is also under way for long-term encapsulation of all three facilities.
Contact: EMR Managing director and CEO Jason Chang.
Contact Details:
EMR Capital
Tel + 61-3-8644-1353
Email http://jasonchang@emrcapital.com
Website www.emrcapital.com