Golden Grove Mine
| Location | |
|---|---|
  Golden Grove Mine Location in Australia | |
| Location | Yalgoo |
| State | Western Australia |
| Country | Australia |
| Coordinates | 28°44′S 116°57′E / 28.733°S 116.950°ECoordinates: 28°44′S 116°57′E / 28.733°S 116.950°E |
| Production | |
| Products |
Copper Gold Lead Silver Zinc |
| Production |
Copper: 18,467 tonnes Gold: 47,755 ounces Lead: 13,300 tonnes Silver: 3,157,837 ounces Zinc: 139,900 tonnes |
| Financial year | 2008 |
| Owner | |
| Company | Minerals and Metals Group |
| Website | Minerals and Metals Group website |
| Year of acquisition | 2009 |
The Golden Grove Mine is a copper, lead, silver, zinc and gold mine located 52 km south-south-east of Yalgoo, Western Australia.
It is operated by Minerals and Metals Group, which was formed after its parent company, China Minmetals, bought the mine from OZ Minerals in June 2009.[1] Golden Grove was part of a deal in which the Sepon, Century, Rosebery and Avebury Mines, the Dugald River, High Lake and Izok Lake Projects, as well as some exploration assets were sold for US$1.354 billion by OZ Minerals to China Minmetals.[2]
The deal, initially including the Prominent Hill Mine, was blocked by the Australian Government, citing national security concerns. Wayne Swan, Treasurer of Australia, stated that Prominent Hill could not be included in the sale as it was within sensitive military area and the sale went only ahead after Prominent Hill was excluded.[3]
History
The mine was originally owned by Australian Consolidated Minerals Pty Ltd[4] before passing into the ownership of Normandy Poseidon Ltd in November 1991. Normandy, now renamed Normandy Mining Ltd, was acquired by Newmont Australia Ltd in February 2002.[5]
Newmont passed on the mine to Oxiana Limited in June 2005 for A$265 million[6] and Oxiana merged with Zinifex to form OZ Minerals in mid-2008.[7] OZ Minerals had to sell Golden Grove in June 2009 to China Minmetals, like almost all its other mines, when the company was hit by severe financial difficulties.[8]
The Golden Grove mine currently consists of two operations that are 3 km apart, the Gossan Hill underground mine and the Scuddles underground mine, which both produce zinc, copper, lead, silver and gold.[6] The Gossan Hill deposit was first discovered in 1971 and the Scuddles deposit was first discovered in 1979.
In 2008, the mine's revenue was A$266.2 million and had a segment operating result of A$72.1 million[9]
In June 2009, OZ Minerals announced that a trunnion bearing failure on its mill at Golden Grove had put the mill out of service for almost a month, shortly before the approval of the sale of the mine,[10] but operations resumed in July 2009.[11]
Production
Production figures for the mine: 1
| Year | Copper | Gold | Lead | Silver | Zinc |
| 2001 [12] | 22,249 t | 5,356 oz | 4,937 t | 975,146 oz | 77,569 t |
| 2002 [12] | 19,500 t | 10,300 oz | 4,937 t | 899,500 oz | 34,571 t |
| 2003 | |||||
| 2004 | |||||
| 2005 [13] | 21,808 t | 25,272 oz | 4,949 t | 2,174,620 oz | 70,508 t |
| 2006 [13] | 10,811 t | 49,354 oz | 11,458 t | 3,005,611 oz | 138,817 t |
| 2007 [13] | 15,404 t | 48,807 oz | 8,119 t | 3,165,408 oz | 131,954 t |
| 2008 [9] | 18,467 t | 47,755 oz | 13,300 t | 3,157,837 oz | 139,900 t |
| 2009** | 16,658 t | 0.9 million oz | 2,662 t | 818,050 oz | 36,375 t |
- 1 January to September 2002 only. **Total contained metals for June–December 2009.
Sources
- The Australian Mines Handbook: 2003-2004 Edition, Louthean Media Pty Ltd, Editor: Ross Louthean
- Western Australian Mineral and Petroleum Statistics Digest 2008 Page 34: Principal Mineral and Petroleum Producers - Gold
References
- ↑ Completion of Transaction with Minmetals OZ Minerals ASX announcement, published: 17 June 2009, accessed: 11 January 2010
- ↑ Minmetals Succeeds in OZ Minerals Deal Minmetals Australia Pty Ltd website, published: 6 November 2008, accessed: 11 January 2010
- ↑ Australia Blocks China’s Purchase of Mining Company The New York Times, published: 27 March 2009, accessed: 11 January 2010
- ↑ AUSTRALIAN CONSOLIDATED MINERALS LIMITED (ACM) delisted.com.au, accessed: 11 January 2010
- ↑ NORMANDY MINING LIMITED (NDY) delisted.com.au, accessed: 11 January 2010
- 1 2 To Acquire Golden Grove Mine from Newmont Oxiana ASX announcement, published: 24 June 2005, accessed: 11 January 2010
- ↑ Change of name to OZ Minerals approved Oxiana ASX announcement, published: 22 July 2008, accessed: 11 January 2010
- ↑ MINEDEX website - Golden Grove search result accessed: 11 January 2010
- 1 2 Oxiana/OZ Minerals 2008 annual report accessed: 11 January 2010
- ↑ Mill outage at Golden Grove OZ Minerals ASX announcement, published: 17 June 2009, accessed: 11 January 2010
- ↑ Golden Grove mill back online: Minmetals The Sydney Morning Herald, published: 7 July 2009, accessed: 11 January 2010
- 1 2 The Australian Mines Handbook: 2003-2004 Edition, page 317
- 1 2 3 Oxiana 2007 annual report accessed: 12 January 2010