Super Pit Gold Mine Information
The Fimiston Open Pit, colloquially known as the Super Pit, is Australia's largest open cut gold mine. The Super Pit is located off the Goldfields Highway on the south-east edge of Kalgoorlie, Western Australia. The pit is oblong in shape and is approximately 3.5 kilometres long, 1.5 kilometres wide and 360 metres deep. At these dimensions, it is large enough to be seen from space.[1]
The Super Pit is owned by Kalgoorlie Consolidated Gold Mines Pty Ltd, a company owned 50/50 by Barrick Gold Corporation and Newmont Mining Corporation. The mine produces 850,000 ounces (28 tonnes) per year of gold, and employs around 550 employees directly on site.
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Earlier stages
Originally consisting of a number of small underground mines, consolidation into a single open pit mine was attempted by Alan Bond, but he was unable to complete the takeover. The Super Pit was eventually created in 1989 by Kalgoorlie Consolidated Gold Mines Pty Ltd.[2]
Barrick Gold acquired its share of the mine in December 2001, when it took over Homestake Mining Company . Newmont became part-owner of the mine three month later, when it acquired Normandy Mining in February 2002.[3]
Geology
Most of the good gold mined in the Super Pit occurs within ore lodes formed by ancient shears in a rock unit called the Golden Mile Dolerite. As the result, the area is known as the Golden Mile even though the lodes occur in an area over 2 km in width and 1 km in depth.
Production
Mining is via conventional drill and blast mining via face shovels and dump trucks. Around 15 million tonnes of rock is moved in any given year, consisting primarily of waste rock.
Gold within the Golden Mile lode system is unusual in that it is present as telluride minerals within pyrite. In order to recover the gold, the ore must be crushed, passed through a gravity circuit to recover the free gold present in some of the higher-grade lodes, and then subjected to flotation to produce an auriferous pyrite concentrate. This is then roasted at a small smelter outside Kalgoorlie-Boulder to liberate the gold from the tellurides, with doré bars poured.
Gold mines in the Kalgoorlie regionFigures
Past production figures were:[4]
| Year | Production | Grade | Cost per ounce |
| 1998-99 [5] | 718,554 ounces | 2.37 g/t | US$236 |
| 2000 | 715,164 ounces | 2.27 g/t | A$ 325 |
| 2001 | 616,344 ounces | 2.14 g/t | A$ 397 |
| 2002 | 720,050 ounces | 1.73 g/t | A$ 222 |
| 2003 | |||
| 2004 | |||
| 2005 | |||
| 2006 | |||
| 2007 | 628,000 ounces | 1.53 g/t | |
| 2008 | 612,000 ounces | 1.56 g/t | |
| 2009 | 690,000 ounces | US$ 609 | |
| 2010 |
Viewing and tourism
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This renowned Kalgoorlie-Boulder landmark is currently 3.5 km long, 1.5 km wide and 360 m deep, and will eventually stretch 3.9 km long, 1.6 km wide and reach a depth exceeding 500 m. Since 1893, when Irishman Paddy Hannan first made his famous discovery, more than 50 million ounces (1,550 t) of gold have been mined from the Golden Mile.
The Super Pit is open for viewing at the public lookout daily between 7 am and 9 pm. Blasts occur regularly and can often be viewed from this lookout located off the Goldfields Highway in Boulder.
Free tours of the Super Pit run once a month on Boulder Market Days. The tours give a behind the scenes look at the mining operations and equipment. A highlight of the tour is the opportunity to view the pit from the OBR (Oroya Bypass Road) internal lookout.
Daily tours (not free) are run, picking up passengers in Kalgoorlie's St Barbara Square. The trips, by minibus, run for about 2.5 hours, and are very popular, pre-booking usually being required. Superpit tours
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References
- ^ Perth Now: "Super Pit 'Scars' Earth"
- ^ Treadgold, Tim. (1995) History of the pit's development from 1989 to 1995 Australia's mining monthly, May 1995, p. 31, 33-36,
- ^ MINEDEX website Golden Mile / KCGM search result, accessed: 26 January 2010
- ^ The Australian Mines Handbook - 2003-04 Edition page: 127
- ^ Normandy Mining Ltd - 1999 Mine-by-Mine Operating Results accessed: 14 February 2010
External links
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Categories:
- Gold mines in Western Australia
- Surface mines in Australia
- Kalgoorlie-Boulder
- Barrick Gold
- Newmont Mining Corporation
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