Wiluna Gold Mine
Wiluna Mill before the 2008-09 upgrade
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| Location | |
|---|---|
| Location | Wiluna |
| State | Western Australia |
| Country | Australia |
| Coordinates | 26°37′S 120°15′E / 26.617°S 120.250°ECoordinates: 26°37′S 120°15′E / 26.617°S 120.250°E |
| Production | |
| Production | 68,049 |
| Financial year | 2010–11 |
| History | |
| Opened | 1896 |
| Active | 1896–1920 1924–1947 1987–2007 2009–2013 |
| Owner | |
| Company | APEX Minerals |
| Website | APEX website |
| Year of acquisition | 2007 |
The Wiluna Gold Mine is an active gold mine in Western Australia near the town of Wiluna. The mine was active from 1984 until its closure in 2007; when it was put into care and maintenance; and again from late 2008 to June 2013 when the owners, APEX Minerals, went into receivership.
After commissioning from its recent upgrade the mine should have resumed full operations before the end of 2008; however, delays in the comissoning had forced the owner, APEX Minerals, to raise more money and postpone this date. The company announced on 5 March 2009 that full production had resumed, but in June 2013 APEX had to declare insolvency and the mine was placed in care and maintenance again. In January 2014 it was announced that the mine would be sold to Blackham Resources, with the deal to be finalised before the 7 March 2014.
The mine is located on the native title of the Ngaanyatjarra aboriginal people.
The mine consists of several open pits, the largest being East Pit which was mined until July 2007 and again in late 2008 and early 2009, and three underground operations. Two of those, Happy Jack and East Lode, are older workings, the third, Bulletin decline was also mined until July 2007 and has since reopened. Bulletin and its extensions, Calais and Woodley decline were the sites of an underground drilling program during the mines closure in 2007 and 2008. There was then approx. 15 km of underground workings at the mine. Most of the open pits are flooded with salt water. Only one of them, the small Caledonia Pit, contains fresh water. It is home to long neck turtles and yabbies (a fresh water crustacean).
The current owner, Apex Minerals, upgraded and reopened the mine in November 2008. It originally also planned to transport ore to the Wiluna plant from its other mine sites, the Gidgee Gold Mine (approx. 150 km south) and the Youanmi Gold Mine (approx. 300 km south). After having postponed this plan in 2009, APEX reconsidered this option in September 2009, when its Wiluna-focused strategy failed.
Williamson pit, an open pit in the dry salt lake of Lake Way, was also mined by Agincourt until early 2007 but is now abandoned. The mining lease was still with Oxiana Limited after the sale of Wiluna, Oxiana having had plans to mine rich uranium deposits there through Toro Energy Limited in the foreseeable future. There are other mining companies that were carrying out exploration in the Wiluna area too, notably for nickel and iron ore. There is also an older mine site approximately 25 km south of Wiluna, along the road to Leinster, called Wiluna South or Matilda Mine. It was operated for about 10 years until 1989 by Chevron. Apart from a couple of old pits and tailings dams there is little remaining of the old site.
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