Big blow coolgardie

In April 2011 Focus Minerals began development on three new open pits at their Tindals Gold Mining Centre at Coolgardie. The new pits; Big Blow, Dreadnought and Empress are three of a total of thirteen prospects and deposits the company is planning on developing along a highly mineralised area approximately two kilometres wide and five kilometres long, at Coolgardie, in the Eastern Goldfields near Kalgoorlie in Western Australia.

Big Blow, Dreadnought and Empress Open Pits Will Increase Gold
Production by 30,000 Ounces Annually

The development of the Big Blow-Coolgardie and the two other pits are aimed at increasing the company's total Tindal Mining Centre production by 30,000 ounces of gold a year and increase its open pit probable reserves by 31 percent.

Barcon Awarded Open pit Development Contract at Big Blow- Coolgardie Mine

Kalgoorlie based mining contractor Barcon were awarded the contract to develop the three open pits that will form the third leg in the company's planned production strategy to enhance its existing underground operations at the Tindals Mining Centre. The open pits will provide the Coolgardie operation with low cost gold production, within a distance of only five kilometres by road haulage, from its Three Mile Hill Gold Processing Plant.

Big Blow-Coolgardie Drilling Program Doubles Known Gold Reserves

The development of the Big Blow-Coolgardie, Dreadnought and Empress open pits were vindicated with the announcement of an open pit probable gold reserve increase of 31 percent to 505,000 tonnes grading at 2.14 grams a tonne that would produce 34,700 ounces of gold. This increase in probable reserves was indicated as a result of a rather modest drilling program at the Big Blow deposit that was determining the depth of mineralisation to the deposits south that practically doubled what the company had previously believed it had in reserves in that zone.
The development of the three open pits allowed for total gold production at the Tindals Mining Centre to reach 100,000 ounces in 2011 with a further increase of 30,000 ounces in 2012.

An Area Rich in Open pit Gold Mining History

The Big Blow-Coolgardie open pit gold mine is adjacent to the gold mining town of Coolgardie, 35 kilometres from Kalgoorlie and was commissioned along with the other two open pits in the June quarter of 2011. It is in an area rich in gold mining history, particularly open pit mining as it has, in the past, included such mines as; Baileys, Brilliant, New Australasian, Cookies, Dreadnought and Lindsays.

Gold Ore From Big Blow-Coolgardie Mine to be Processed at Three Mile Hill Processing Plant

The Tindals Mining Centre, underground and open pit operations, all use the one gold processing plant at Three Mile Hill only five kilometres away. This Processing Plant has recently undergone a thorough upgrading, with Focus Minerals planning on a still further upgrade to increase production even more to handle the ore coming from other open pits as they come on line.
Focus Minerals Limited has recently been given a major cash injection from its major shareholder, Shandong Gold International, one of China's largest gold producers, based in the Shandong Province of The People's
†
Republic of China.