Youanmi Gold Mine
| Location | |
|---|---|
| Location | Youanmi |
| State | Western Australia |
| Country | Australia |
| Coordinates | 28°36′40″S 118°50′25″E / 28.61111°S 118.84028°ECoordinates: 28°36′40″S 118°50′25″E / 28.61111°S 118.84028°E |
| Production | |
| Production | 3.5 million tonnes for 607,200 ounces recovered |
| Financial year | lifetime |
| Type | open-pit, underground |
| History | |
| Opened | 1910 |
| Active | 1910-1925 1936-1942 1986-1992 1995-1997 |
| Closed | 1997 |
The Youanmi Gold Mine is a gold mine 82 km south-southwest of the town of Sandstone. It is near the abandoned town of Youanmi, in the Murchison Region of Western Australia.
Youanmi mining operations were suspended in 1997. The mine was initially placed on care and maintenance but has now been abandoned.
In 1994, Youanmi became the first mine to commercially use the BACOX process (previously owned by BacTech Mining Corp, which is now REBgold Corp). This patented process, which is a proprietary of REBgold and BacTech Environmental, is a process of bacterial oxidation and bioleaching technologies that liberate precious metals from difficult-to-treat sulphide ores and concentrates, using naturally occurring bacteria. Incidentally, the Wiluna mine uses a similar process, the BIOX process.
The name Youanmi derives from a spring in the area and was first recorded in 1887. It was given to a surveyor by an old Aboriginal accompanying him, but its meaning is unclear.
After the first gold discovery at Youanami in 1894 or 1895 by prospector Tom Payne, gold mining at Youanmi was carried out intermittently from around 1908 until 1942, when the Youanmi Gold Mine was shut for the second time. The town of Youanmi rose and fell with the mine, finding itself deserted after the closure of the mine. The mine was, in those days, owned by London-based company Bewick Moreing.
The current mine has its origins in the 1980s, when an open pit operation commenced. In 1995, the mine moved to underground mining, where between 50,000 and 60,000 ounces of gold were mined per year, at an average grade of 11.5 g/t. In November 1997, the mine was closed because low gold prices, below A$400 per ounce, made the Youanmi mine uneconomic. At the time of its closure, Youanmi had produced 670,000 ounces of gold throughout its lifetime.
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