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► CSA Mine
CSA MineAddress Detailsvia Louth Road Contact DetailsName: Geoff Hender DescriptionThe CSA mine is located 14 kilometres northwest of Cobar, along the Louth Road. Mining has occurred intermittently on the CSA (Cornish, Scottish, Australian) lease since discovery in 1871 but it was not until 1961 that a significant resource was proved by a BHP subsidiary allowing underground mining to commence on a large scale in 1965. In 1980 CRA acquired the mine, which was subsequently sold to Golden Shamrock Mines Ltd (GSM) in 1992. GSM was acquired by Ashanti Gold Fields in October 1996. Due to a number of reasons, including inefficient working practices combined with a slump in metal prices due to the Asian financial crisis, the mine ran into financial difficulties in 1997. In January 1998 CSA was placed into receivership and placed on care and maintenance. Prior to this the mine was producing approximately 1 million tonnes of ore per year. The CSA Mine is now operated by Cobar Management Pty Limited (CMPL) - a wholly owned Australian subsidiary of Glencore International plc Switzerland. Glencore, one of the World’s largest commodities traders, made a commitment in February 1999 to reopen the mine. The CSA mine is an underground mine, mining copper ore at a rate of 1,200,000 tonnes per annum. The ore is predominantly chalcopyrite (a copper iron sulphide), which produces a concentrate containing approximately 29% copper metal that is transported by rail for subsequent sale to smelters in India, China and SE Asia. In 2009, the CSA Mine recorded its highest output ever, with over 182,000 tonnes of concentrate being produced, containing in excess of 51,000 tonnes of copper metal, and 400,000 ounces of silver. Mining and mineral processing activities are conducted by CMPL’s own employees, supported by local and national contractors. The mine currently employs over 300 people, plus contractors.
Endeavor MineAddress Detailsvia Louth Road Contact DetailsName: Denver D'Angelo DescriptionThe Endeavor Mine (Endeavor) is situated 47 kilometres north of Cobar and is owned and operated by Sydney-based mineral resource company CBH Resources Limited (CBH). Following the completion of the acquisition of all of CBH's issued ordinary shares on 23rd September 2010, CBH Resources Limited is a wholly owned subsidiary of Toho Zinc Co. Ltd., a company listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange. Located 47 kilometres north of Cobar in central western New South Wales, the mine is the largest zinc, lead and silver producer in the region. First brought into production in 1983 as the Elura Mine at a cost of $270 million, the site has been operated by CBH since 2003. The Endeavor orebody is similar to others in the Cobar Basin in that it has the form of massive vertical pillars. The Mine is an entirely underground operation accessed by traditional shaft haulage with concentrator, drying, storage and rail facilities on the mine lease. In extracting the mineral, ore is taken from the surface stockpile and placed in a concentrator where froth flotation separates the particles of valuable zinc, lead and silver materials from the waste. Metal concentrates are then dried for rail freighting to smelters in Port Pirie in South Australia and overseas, predominately Japan. Endeavor is currently producing at a rate of 720,000 tonnes of ore per annum producing 85,000 tonnes of concentrates and 50,000 tonnes of lead concentrates. Endeavor also produces 24,000 kg of silver contained in the lead concentrates. Endeavor currently has mine reserves in excess of 6.0 million tonnes and is actively exploring in and around the mine to further add to the resource base. In addition to the Endeavor Mine, CBH Resources has two further base metal projects: the Rasp Mine at Broken Hill, New South Wales and the Panorama Project in the Pilbara region of Western Australia. At Newcastle Port, CBH owns and operates the concentrates ship loading facility. The facility has capacity to handle in excess of 500,000 tonnes per year. Metal concentrates from the Endeavor Mine and other New South Wales base metal mines are exported through this strategic facility.
Peak Gold MinesAddress DetailsHillston Road Contact DetailsName: Oscar Flores DescriptionPeak Gold Mine, located south of Cobar along the Hillston Road, is a wholly owned subsidiary of New Gold, is located near Cobar in New South Wales, Australia. The Peak operation currently consists of five producing gold and copper deposits that are being mined from underground to provide mill feed to a central gold/copper processing plant. These deposits comprise part of the greater Cobar Gold Field, a 10 kilometer long belt of historic gold and copper mines that extends northwards from the Perseverance-Peak Gold mine to the Tharsis working, immediately north of Cobar township. The Cobar Gold Field is located on the eastern margin of the Cobar Basin and has produced in excess of 3 million ounces of gold and 200,000 tonnes of copper since mining commenced in 1870. The ore bodies currently being mined by Peak Gold Mines are Peak, New Occidental, New Cobar, Perseverance, and Chesney. The following is a summary of the five producing deposits: PeakThe Peak ore-body was the original discovery in 1980. Mining commenced in 1991 and was completed in 2002. Over one million ounces was produced from the Peak ore body during this period. Mining recommenced in 2006 at the top of the Peak ore-body approximately 300 meters below surface and extending 400 meters to the bottom of the ore-body, approximately 715 meters below surface. In December 2007, Peak Mines completed development of a surface decline to connect the underground workings at Peak with the New Occidental ore body to the north. New OccidentalThe New Occidental deposit has been mined sporadically over the last century. In 2001, mining recommenced after 50 years. The New Occidental deposit is located three kilometers north of the Peak ore body and access is via the decline to the Peak workings. New CobarThe New Cobar gold deposit is located approximately 2.5 kilometers north of the New Occidental Gold Mine and, like New Occidental, has been mined intermittently over many years. The deposit was mined by open pit methods from 2000 until open pit operations were completed in February 2004, providing a total of 1.0 million tonnes of ore. Mining progressed underground in July 2004 and continues to provide an additional source of mill feed for the copper/gold processing plant. PerseveranceThe Perseverance deposit is located 900 meters south of the Peak ore body. Access is via a decline ramp from the Peak workings to the Zone A ore-body. Development of the Perseverance resource commenced in mid 2002 and the first production stope was successfully brought on line in December 2003. Development has continued down dip and plunge from the Zone A ore body to the Perseverance Zone D ore body. Zone D is a relatively high grade deposit and has the bulk of the known gold resources at Peak Gold Mines. Chesney DepositThe Chesney deposit is located approximately 0.6 kilometers south of New Cobar and approximately 1.8 kilometers north of the New Occidental deposit. This deposit has also been mined intermittently in the past. Chesney is accessed from the New Cobar workings via a 700m long decline. The Chesney ore-body was brought into production in April 2009. Chesney is a copper/gold deposit with the highest copper grades of all the deposits at Peak.
Mt Boppy Gold MineAddress DetailsEdward Street Contact DetailsName: Andrew Lawry Registered Office: 29 Main Street, Samford QLD 4520 DescriptionThe Mt Boppy Gold Mine located 46 kilometres east of Cobar is an open cut gold mine. At Mount Boppy gold production from an underground mining operation commenced in 1901 and continued to 1923. In its day the mine was one of the largest gold producers in Australia. The orebody delivered some 417,000 ounces of gold from ore with a notional grade of 15 g/t gold (12.2 g/t gold recovered). Sporadic operation up to 2002 added a further 7,000 ounces of gold production. This included gold recovered from the first Carbon-In-Pulp (CIP) plant built in Australia in 1975 at Mount Boppy to re-treat the historic tailings. Polymetals re-opened the Mount Boppy Mine in 2002, establishing open cut operations over the historic underground mine. Between 2002 and the mine closure in 2005, the operations produced approximately 68 koz of gold from 500,000 t of ore with an average grade of 5.29 g/t gold (4.2 g/t gold recovered). The site is currently under care and maintenance. Polymetals plans to add to the mining inventory of 560,000 t at 5.14 g/t gold by delineating additional high-grade ore sources prior to re-commencing mining. Hera Gold ProjectAddress Details'The Peak' Station Contact DetailsCompany: YTC Resources Ltd DescriptionYTC Resources is focussed on the development and exploration of the high grade Hera-Nymagee Project in the Cobar district of NSW. The Hera-Nymagee Project is located about 100kms SE of Cobar in western NSW and the deposits represent typical "Cobar Style" ore systems, which have a strong historical precedent for large scale, high-grade, long life mining operations. The Company has now released the findings of the Definitive Feasibility Study (DFS) on the Hera gold and base metal deposit as Stage 1 of the development of the Hera-Nymagee Project. Stage 2 of the Feasibility study will look at the integration of the larger Nymagee copper deposit, located 4.5km to the north of Hera. The Hera DFS has demonstrated a financially robust and technically feasible mining and processing operation. In the first stage, the Hera deposit will be mined by shallow underground methods producing gold and silver doré bars and a bulk lead-zinc concentrate for sale. The 95% owned Nymagee deposit is emerging as one of the most exciting copper discoveries in Australia in recent times. Following discovery of high-grade copper beneath the historic mine in October 2010, YTC released its maiden Nymagee Resource Estimate in December 2011 with a contained 96,000t Cu, 27,000t Pb, 53000t Zn and 2.2MOz Ag. The Nymagee system remains open to the north and at depth, and holds strong analogies to the world-class CSA copper system, located 90km along strike. CSA, like other Cobar Basin mineral systems has extensive depth persistence and extends to >2km depth. YTC is actively drilling the evolving copper deposit at Nymagee with the potential that the Nymagee mineralisation may evolve into another 'Cobar Giant' similar to the world class CSA copper deposit located approximately 100km north-west along strike. |
Mines