Agnew

South African mining company Gold Fields acquired the Agnew Gold Mine in Western Australia in 2001 from Western Mining (WMC) who had discovered the deposit in the early 1980's. The mine employs approximately 300 contractors and over 100 permanent staff. The mine owner, Gold Fields continues with an ongoing well funded exploration program with the aim of extending the life of the mine through expanding its existing reserves. Many of its tenements remain unexplored and new discoveries are always on the horizon. The mine is operated by mining contractor Barminco on behalf of the owners.

The Agnew Gold Mine in Western Australia Uses Fly In Fly Out Workers

The Agnew Gold Mine is located 1000 kilometres north west of Perth and 375 kilometres north of Kalgoorlie with workers flown in and out from the site to work their shifts, mostly from Perth. When working at the mine the workers are housed in company accommodation at Leinster 23 kilometres from the mine site.

Mining at Agnew is an Underground and Open Pit Operation

Gold is sourced at the Agnew Mine from both underground and open pit mining methods and processed at the on site carbon in pulp (CIP) processing plant. Carbon in pulp is a technique used to recover gold after it has been liberated from the ore by a process that used a cyanide solution. This is called the gold cyanidation process.

Mining takes place underground at the Agnew Gold Mine at the Waroonga complex that consists of the Rajah, Main and Kim lodes. Access to these workings is obtained via a decline that extends 850 metres from the surface. The stopes are mined via mechanised sub-level stoping with pastefill used as backfill.

Agnew Processing Plant Capable of Handling 1.3 Million Tonnes of ore a Year

The gold processing plant at the Agnew Mine is capable of handling 1.3 million tonnes of ore a year. It uses the conventional technique of crushing and grinding before feeding the ore into a gravity and CIP circuit. A Knelson concentrator provides the gravity circuit along with an in-line leach reactor. This process recovers around 40 percent of the available gold. The CIO circuit involves the use of leach and absorption tanks before the ore is exposed to the Zadra carbon elution circuit. In this manner approximately 93.5 percent of the available gold is recovered.

Agnew Mine Tenement Currently Holds 1.3 Million Ounces of Gold in Reserves

Gold Fields hold tenements covering more than 600 square kilometres that are attached to the Agnew lease and the company is in the process of increasing its reserves to more than 1.5 million ounces. Current reserves give the Agnew Mine a life of seven more years of gold production. As of the end of 2011 the company had reserves of 1.3 million ounces of gold. This was an increase over the previous report mainly the result of an extension to the main orebody at the underground mine.

The Agnew Gold Mine is looked on by Gold Fields as being a solid base for its future growth in the Eastern Goldfields Region of Western Australia. An investment that will go a long way to making the company a world leader in sustainable gold mining. It believes it can reach its target of producing around one million ounces of gold by 2015.