Jaguar

The Jaguar underground copper, zinc and silver mine and its associated processing plant, in the Eastern Goldfields Region of Western Australia, that is located 250 kilometres north of the gold mining centre of Kalgoorlie and 60 kilometres north of Leonora, is wholly owned by Independence Group NL, following the takeover of its previous joint venture partner, Jabiru Metals Limited in 2011.

Jaguar Mine Concentrate Trucked to Geraldton for Export
The Jaguar ore body was discovered in 2002 only four kilometres south of the Teutonic Bore mining operation that existed at the site in the early 1980's. Ore mined at the Jaguar mine is processed at the on site concentrator plant that produces zinc and copper concentrate. The copper concentrate also contains silver and some traces of gold. The concentrate product is taken 720 kilometres, by road transport, to Independence Group's concentrate storage facility at the Geraldton port from where it is shipped overseas for smelting.

Jaguar Mine Overcomes Deteriorating Ground Conditions
Production at the Jaguar Mine was adversley effected in the second quarter of 2011 when the ground conditions underground deteriorated. To overcome the adversity the mining operation had to adopt a change in its ground support methodology, this required the suspension of previous high grade stope production, to allow additional ground support to be put into place. While this was being undertaken the mill feed comprised lower grade ore from stockpiles and low grade stopes. The ground condition intervention work was successful and stope production returned to normal in the third quarter of the year. Production for the 2011 full year still achieved 355,952 tonnes of ore that returned 80 grams a tonne of silver, 5.81 percent zinc and 2.82 percent copper. All production is processed on site that resulted in 8,468 tonnes of copper in concentrate and 14,671 tonnes of zinc in concentrate. The Jaguar Mine is currently mining 400,000 tonnes of ore annually that is producing 600,000 ounces of silver, 25,000 tonnes of zinc and 9,000 tonnes of copper.

Jaguar Mine Owner Independence Group Incorporated in 2000
Independence Group NL was incorporated in 2000 for the purpose of discovering major mineral ore bodies throughout Australia. In 2001 it discovered the world class gold reserve at the Tropicana site that has now received wide recognition as a new Western Australian gold province. In 2002 it joined forces with AngloGold Ashanti Australia as well as acquiring the Long Nickel Mine at Kambalda in Western Australia.
The Jaguar, Teutonic Bore and Bentley, copper, zinc and silver ore bodies all occur in the same volcanic succession. All consist of massive sulphide lenses that consist of pyrite, chalcopyrite galena, pyrrhotite, sphalerite and minor sulphosalts. The Jaguar ore body has a 400 metre strike with a 400 metre down dip and an average thickness of three metres. In 2010 Jabiru Metals Limited increased the life of the Jaguar Mine by a further three years as a result of successful mineral reserve upgrading. This increase stretched the life expectation of the mine to at least 2018 based on its then current production level and known reserves. It reported reserves at 2010 as being 3.23 million tonnes of ore, up from the previous 2.05 million tonnes. It was the largest upgrade in the history of the project and showed the long-term prospectivity of the landholdings within the Jaguar prospecting area.
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