Callie

The Callie underground gold mine in southern Northern Territory, 600 kilometres north west of Alice Springs, is located on Aboriginal freehold land. Gold was discovered in the area in the early 1900's. Mining activity increased considerably from the late 1980's as the price of gold increased.

Callie Mine Owned by Newmont Mining Corporation
Newmont Mining Corporation, a United States based gold mining company, contracted the operation of the mine to HWE Mining from 1995 to 2011. HWE was subsequently taken over by Leighton Holdings and in 2011 Newmont transitioned the mine to an owner operator project. HWE had been the mine contractor since it first began production and during its period as operator produced more than 6.5 million ounces of gold, making it one of Australia's most productive gold mines. The mine is located at Dead Bullock Soak and the ore processed at the Granites Mill 40 kilometres to its east. At the end of 2010 the Callie Mine had over two million ounces of gold held in reserve.

Callie Deep Shaft Suspended
In 2011 it was announced a deep shaft was to be sunk to extend the life of the mine as it expected to reach the end of its life in 2015. This work has since been suspended and workers laid off owing to depressed gold prices. However, in early 2013 Tanami Gold announced it had discovered one million ounces of gold at its Central Tanami project, a discovery that extended its gold reserves to more than three million ounces.

Ore from Callie Mine Processed at the Granite Gold Treatment Plant
The Granites Gold Processing Plant, that is accessed from the mine by an all weather road, consists of a crusher, grinder and CIP (carbon-in-pulp) circuit. The plant began production in 1986 and has been regularly upgraded from that time so that it can now process 2.5 million tonnes of ore each year. Both the Granites Gold Processing Plant and the Callie Mine workforce is accommodated at an accommodation village and are employed on a fly-in-fly-out basis. They work 12 hour shifts on a 14 day on seven days off roster. The accommodation village has modern amenities that includes a spacious wet and dry mess, a swimming pool and outdoor sports facilities.

Callie Owners, Newmont, Founded in 1916
The Newmont Mining Corporation, that is American based, has mining operations in Mexico, New Zealand, Ghana, Indonesia, Peru, United States and Australia. It was founded in 1916 and has its headquarters in Denver, Colorado. It employs more than 40,000 employees and contractors around the world. The company was founded by William Thompson as a holding company for his acquisitions of gas, oil mining and mineral enterprises. Newmont Mining has been trading on the New York Stock Exchange since 1940.

Equipment Used at the Callie Mine
Mining at the Callie underground gold mine is carried out by using the sub-level open stoping method with cemented backfill that facilitates selective extraction. The mining equipment used includes the following:
One Caterpillar 690 truck, one Caterpillar 972G truck and one Caterpillar 980G truck and five Volvo L120 trucks
Underground trucks- Ten Caterpillar AD55B and seven AD55. LHD's five Caterpillar R2900G's
Drill Jumbo/production riggs ñ Three Sandvik (Tamrock) Solo 7's, three Sandvic (Tamrock) Avera D07's, one Sandvic Minimatic H205
Graders ñ Two Caterpillar 12H and one 16H
Robbins raise drills ñ Two 41R and 73R
Charging riggs - Getman 2-500C and Charmic 1610B
Boart Longyear Diamond Drills - Two LM75's and two LM90's