Augusta

The underground Augusta gold and antimony mine in Central Victoria is fully owned by Mandalay Resources, a Canadian mining company that has mines in Australia and Chile.

The Augusta Deposit Lies at the Southern end of the Costerfield Gold Zone
The Augusta Mine, that is located at the small town of Costerfield, 100
kilometres north of Melbourne, 10 kilometres east of Heathcote and 50 kilometres east of Bendigo, is an underground mine extracting gold and antimony from the steeply dipping Augusta East lode, West lode and North lode, all at the southern end of the Costerfield gold zone.

Augusta Mine Accessed by a Decline
The ore is taken from the mine via a decline, four metres high by four metres wide, with a grade of one metre in eight. Mining is accomplished by the usual cut and fill method using blast hole stoping with cement and rock fill. The Augusta orebody was first developed as an underground operation in 2006 by AGD Mining Pty Ltd, a subsidiary of Cambrian Mining Limited, who in turn was owned by Western Canadian Coal Corporation. However, in 2009 it was purchased by Mandalay Resources Corporation, another Canadian mining company.

New Reserves Keep Pace with Production Increase at Augusta Mine
Mandalay Resources immediately set about pushing up production at the Augusta Mine to 5,000 tonnes of ore a month along with locating new reserves, particularly in the Augusta East and West lodes. In 2011 the company discovered the Cuffley lode, a lode that will be fully analysed economically by mid 2013. This discovery is expected to extend the life of mine considerably as well as open up other new veins in the same district.

Augusta ore Treated at the Brunswick Gold Processing Plant
The tenements at Costerfield, owned by Mandalay Resources, currently add up to 7,540.78 hectares. 1,219.30 hectares is held as its main mining licence with the balance covering two exploration licences. The gold processing plant that treats the Augusta Mine's gold bearing ore was built in 1995 to re-process tailings left over from the workings of the Brunswick deposit which was an open cut operation.

Production Increase on Previous Year Matched by Aggressive Drilling Program
For the first quarter of 2012 the Augusta Mine produced 6,203 ounces of gold and 766 tonnes of antimony, a mineral used widely in the cosmetic industry. This production level was considerably greater than for the same quarter of the previous year. The production increase was mainly due to refinements being made to the method of using cemented rock fill in long hole stoping, as well as increased throughput obtained following the installation of a mobile crusher in the third quarter of the 2011.

The exploration program that was launched in 2011 and included the Augusta Mine's Deeps project, consisted of 11,500 metres of drilling with the purpose of extending the Augusta ore shoot. It also included the Brownfield project that included 4,000 metres of drilling to confirm additional ore shoots in the surrounding Costerfield district.

The Costerfield project, that includes the Augusta Mine, contains a growth portfolio that takes in early to late stage mining programs. Mandalay Resources expects early stage success that will allow it to restock its late stage mining programs so that the current drilling program will be able to continue to grow reserves several years out.
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