Coogee

The Coogee gold mine is an open pit operation located 23 kilometres north east of Kambalda in Western Australia. It is wholly owned by fast growing Western Australian based gold exploration and producing company Ramelius Resources.

Watpac Awarded Contract to Operate the Coogee Gold Mine
Site clearing for the development of the Coogee gold mine commenced, along with the construction of the necessary mine infrastructure, in July 2013 and by early August it was announced mining contracting company, Watpac, had been awarded the contract to carry out the Coogee mining operation on behalf of Ramelius Resources.

First Coogee ore Delivered for Processing in October 2013
Watpac began the mining of the Coogee ore body using a 50 tonne trucking fleet and a 120 tonne excavator. By mid-September the Stage One pit was completed to a 20 metre vertical depth and mining was proceeding ahead of schedule, with mining rates reported as being excellent. Actual ore mining began in early October 2013 with the first delivery being made to the Burbanks Mill for processing on October 14. Mining of the Coogee gold bearing ore deposit was made possible following the creation of a resource model and pit design throughout the earlier part of 2013.

Coogee Lease Acquired from Terrain Minerals Limited in 2012
Ramelius Resources acquired the Coogee gold deposit mining lease from Terrain Minerals Limited in early 2012. The company immediately set about conducting hydrogeological, geotechnical and resource drilling on the deposit and determined a resource of 224,000 tonnes of gold bearing ore grading at 4.10 grams of gold a tonne. An amount that would realise 30,000 ounces of gold. This was an increase from an earlier mining study undertaken by external mining consultants that determined an economical gold bearing ore reserve at the site of 109,000 tonnes grading at 5.10 grams a tonne that would deliver 18,000 ounces of gold.

Coogee Open pit to Have a Depth of 70 Metres
The Coogee gold mineralisation was determined as being a relatively typical shear hosted silica-pyrite lode type of deposit. Most of the gold resource that can be economically mined sits between 25 and 75 metres from the surface. No gold appears in the top 25 metres owing to depleted oxidised saprolite and transported cover. The original pit design to best mine the orebody was planned to be developed to a depth of 70 metres.

Coogee ore Milled at the Burbanks Plant Near Coolgardie
Processing of the ore mined from the Coogee gold mine is transported 112 kilometres by road to the Burbanks Mill where metallurgical tests have shown the gold recovery to be about 90 percent. The Burbanks gold treatment plant is situated 65 kilometres from the Ramelius Resources Wattle Dam gold mine and eight kilometres south of the historic gold mining town of Coolgardie. The plant was acquired by Ramelius Resources in late 2006 and has, since that time, been substantially upgraded. It is a conventional CIL ( carbon-in-leach) circuit mill that has a capacity to handle up to 180,000 tonnes of ore a year.

Ramelius Resources currently has gold mining operations at Coogee/Burbanks and Mt Magnet as well as looking forward to bringing the Vivien gold project, near the Agnew mine, on-line soon. All these projects are in Western Australia. The Coogee gold mine is expected to produce 5,000 ounces of gold for the December quarter 2013. Its first quarter of gold production.
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