Big Bell Gold Mine
The entrance to the mine
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| Location | |
|---|---|
| Location | Big Bell |
| State | Western Australia |
| Country | Australia |
| Coordinates | 27°17′42″S 117°39′20″E / 27.29500°S 117.65556°ECoordinates: 27°17′42″S 117°39′20″E / 27.29500°S 117.65556°E |
| Production | |
| Production | inactive |
| Financial year | 2008-09 |
| History | |
| Opened | 1980s |
| Closed | 2003 |
| Owner | |
| Company | Westgold Resources Ltd |
| Website | Westgold Resources Limited CMGP |
| Year of acquisition | 2011 |
The Big Bell Gold Mine is a gold mine located at Big Bell, 24 km north-west of Cue, Western Australia. The mine was owned and operated by Harmony Gold at the time of its closure in June 2003, having produced 2.6 million ounces of gold during its lifetime, but was sold to Aragon Resources Limited in January 2010.
The mine was, for a short time in 2008, owned by Monarch Gold Mining Company Ltd, who went into administration in June 2008. Big Bell never entered production under Monarch's ownership.
The historical Big Bell mine produced 730,000 ounces of gold at 4.04 g/t from 1904 to 1955. The mine was a very big, low grade ore deposit at Paton's Find, and was developed by the Premier Gold Mining Company in the 1930s. With the closure of the mine in the mid-1950s, the town of Big Bell declined and was virtually deserted.
The mine reopened in the 1980s, then owned jointly by ACM Limited and Placer Pacific, having been described as Australia's biggest unexploited gold deposit at the time.
The mine was later owned by Normandy Mining, until October 1999, when New Hampton Goldfields Limited acquired Big Bell for A$12 million in cash and A$17 million in shares. New Hampton was taken over by Harmony Gold in April 2001 for A$54 million.
Harmony closed the mine in June 2003, having found previous assesements of the grade at Big Bell over optimistic and making mining the deposits thereby unprofitable.
The Big Bell processing plant was removed from January 2007 onwards for a cost of A$5.2 million and transported to Westonia, to become part of the new Edna May Gold Mine.
Monarch Gold purchased the mine from Harmony in November 2007 in a deal that saw the company acquire Hill 50, Big Bell, St George, Star and the Great Fingall deposits for A$65 million, 30 million of this in cash. Monarch already owned the Mount Ida and the Davyhurst Gold Mine, who had both recently entered production at the time.
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