Dargues reef at majors creek

The Dargues Reef gold mining project at Majors Creek in New South Wales is located 60 kilometres from Canberra and 13 kilometres south of Braidwood. The highly mineralised ore body was discovered in the early 1870's by James Dargues. Following the discovery of the Dargues Reef, mining continued there for the next 20 years with the development of an open cut and sinking of a main shaft. Other shafts were eventually sunk during this time but mining remained rather steady until the three year period between 1914 and 1916 when various other parties began mining
the area. Gold mining of the Dargues Reef at Majors Creek was, at this time,returning 14 grams of gold a tonne.

Unity Mining Limited Drilled 340 Exploratory Holes at Dargues Reef in 2004
Exploration to establish a further gold resource at Dargues Reef, gained momentum again in 2004 when 340 holes were drilled by Unity Mining Limited, an Australian gold exploration, developing and producing company that both owns and operates the Henty Gold Mine in Tasmania. Unity Mining Limited also holds tenure over the Bendigo Goldfield in Victoria and gold exploration interests in West Africa through an investment in Goldstone Resources Limited.

Studies Show Dargues Reef to be More Robust Than First Thought
Exploration drilling at Dargues Reef has resulted in the identification of gold reserves and resources, which, when updated in June 2010, stood at 1.61 million tonnes grading at 6.3 grams of gold a tonne, which represents a return of 327,300 ounces of gold. A scoping study undertaken by Unity Mining has confirmed the project would support an underground mine at Dargues Reef at current world gold prices. Since the initial study, an environmental assessment and definitive feasibility study, has been completed that shows the mine has the potential to be a more robust project than first thought.

Dargues Reef Project to be Developed as an Underground Mining Operation
The Dargues Reef Project will be developed as an underground gold mine with a decline, a ROM (run-of-mine) pad, tailings storage facilities, gold treatment plant, crushing facility and a temporary waste rock emplacement area as well as any other associated infrastructure deemed necessary. The mine infrastructure will cover an area of around 403 hectares of land owned by Unity Mining Limited.

Sequence of Development of the Dargues Reef Gold Mine
The method of mining Dargues Reef at Majors Creek will be undertaken in the following manner:
- Gold bearing ore and waste rock will be removed from the deposit using sub-level stope mining technology
- Surface infrastructure required to service the underground operation will include a box cut, portal, decline, fuel store, magazines, ventilation rise, water supply and electric power
- Gold processing plant, administrative offices, ROM pad, temporary waste rock emplacement area, crusher and grinder along with flotation and gravity circuits
- A tailings storage facility, site access roads, water management system, core yards, internal roads
- The underground mine and infrastructure requirements have all been designed and the definitive feasibility study for a 50,000 ounce plus gold mine completed. The operation will mine 330,000 tonnes of ore a year.

Half the gold will be extracted from the ore at the treatment plant by means of a simple gravity process. The other half will produce a sulphide concentrate. There will by no cyanide used and the end result will be a state of the art gold mine using an environmentally friendly gold processing facility leaving a small surface footprint.
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