Caustons

The Caustons open pit gold mine is located in the Murchison goldfield between Cue and Mount Magnet, 600 kilometres north east of Perth in Western Australia. It is a part of the Silver Lake Resources owned Tuckabianna gold mining project that also includes the Moyagee, Eelya and Comet projects.

Caustons Mine is Owned by Perth Based Silver Lake Resources

Silver Lake Resources is a large, Perth based, gold exploration and†producing company with a gold resource of 6.4 million ounces. It also holds 1.7 million ounces of gold in highly prospective reserves.

The Caustons open pit gold mining operation is mining high gold mineralised zones that vary in width from less than a metre, to up to five metres, dipping at around 70 degrees to the east. The Caustons mine commenced production in October, 2012, mining ore from the Genesis deposit. The Caustons gold bearing ore body consists of two distinct lodes, a northern and a southern lode.The Caustons operation also includes a cut- back of the previous Caustons open pit workings, the Caustons South pit, the Caustons North pit and an open pit on the Exodus resource.

Caustons Mine Produces its First Gold Bar in February, 2013

During the December quarter of 2012, 704,000 tonnes of waste was removed from the Caustons open pit along with 132,900 tonnes of ore which amounts to a strip ratio of 5.3 to one. The Genesis and Caustons North deposits both deliver grades of 1.8 grams of gold to a tonne of ore. It was ore from these pits that combined to produce Caustons first gold bar in February, 2013.

Caustons Mine Underground Development Deferred for 12 Months

Silver Lake Resources also plan to create an underground operation at the Caustons mine. The underground mine is to accessed by means of a decline leading from the existing Caustons open pit. The underground mine will be worked with the use of mechanised strike and up-hole stoping. Work on the portal began in April 2013, however, it was announced in July 2013, that the gold mining operation was being restricted to the open pit, at least to the end of the 2014 financial year, with further development work on the underground project being deferred. The Caustons underground mine was therefore placed on care and maintenance to await a start up at a later date.

The deferment of the underground operation at the Caustons mine was brought about by the sudden fall in the world gold price in mid-2013. This caused the company to focus on mining higher grade ores and to cut back on capital intensive projects.

Caustons Mine ore is Processed at the Tuckabianna Gold Processing Facility

Ore mined from the Caustons open pits is processed through the Silver Lake Resources owned, Tuckabianna gold processing facility that is situated 1.5 kilometres north east of the Caustons mining operation. Processing at this plant follows the relatively straightforward conventional method and as the ore is a mix of oxide, fresh material and transitional it is processed by means of metallurgical recovery that ranges from 85 to 92 percent. Most of the gold is recovered by means of the cyanide leach process.