Janet ivy

Gold production at the Janet Ivy open cut mine recommenced in November 2011 for a three month period to supplement base-load production from the adjacent Navajo Chief open pit while waiting for the Blue Gum East Mine to come on line. Since then the Janet Ivy operation has remained in production in depth and along strike.

Janet Ivy Gold Mine Just 10 Kilometres From Kalgoorlie
The mine is located 33 kilometres from the Paddington Processing Plant and only 10 kilometres from the city of Kalgoorlie in the rich Kalgoorlie Goldfields of Western Australia. It has its own privately owned dedicated haulage road that allows trucking of the ore from the mine to be processed at the Paddington Mill, therefore avoiding having to haul the ore through Kalgoorlie streets.

Janet Ivy Mine Developed in two Stages:
Stage one of the Janet Ivy operation started in July 2009 and at that time the mine owner, Norton Goldfields Limited, estimated a delivery of over two million tonnes of ore that would produce 91,000 ounces of gold in an eighteen month period.

Stage two is based on mine extension along strike and at depth with a delivery expectation of two million tonne estimated to realise 89,000 ounces of gold over a two year period, with further potential to have the life of the mine extended.

Norton Goldfields is Part of the Giant Chinese Zijin Mining Group
Mine owner, Norton Goldfields Limited, is owned by China's largest gold miner, Zijin Mining Group. In 2005 it was first listed on the Australian Securities Exchange and since that time it has become one of Australia's largest gold miners. The name 'Norton' coming from the Norton Gold Mine near Gladstone in Queensland, its first venture into the Australian gold mining industry.

In 2007 Norton Goldfields Limited acquired the Paddington Gold Mine near Kalgoorlie from Barrick Gold Corporation. This acquisition came with the 3.3 million tonnes a year Paddington Gold Processing Mill and many open pit gold mines, one of these being the Janet Ivy mine. This purchase instantly made Norton a major Australian gold miner employing around 350 people and producing more than 150,000 ounces of gold a year. A further two million ounces of gold resource was added in 2008 when the company acquired the Bellamel mine. Homestead, the company's first underground mine was opened in 2009 and this mine has expectations to become the company's most valuable asset because of its high grade ore.

The Janet Ivy open pit gold mine, as part of the Paddington group of mines supplying ore to the Paddington Mill, helps contribute to Norton's 6.03 million ounces of gold resource in the area that give the project an economic viable lifetime of more than 10 years.

Gold Recovery at the Paddington Mill
The Paddington Mill that processes the ore taken from the Janet Ivy open pit gold mine is designed to utilise carbon-in-pulp methods of gold recovery. This consists of cyanide leaching, gravity recovery, a ball and SAG mill grinding circuit and a cone crusher. It works by means of the gold being taken from a slurry while passing through the leaching circuit onto activated carbon. The carbon is then pumped to an elution column, the water drained and a mixture of cyanide and caustic soda pumped through the column to contact the carbon. This mixture causes the gold to leave the carbon and concentrated solutions of gold results. The final process involves passing this solution through a number of electro-winning cells that separate gold out of the solution and into stainless steel cathodes. The resulting sludge is dried before being smelted into gold bullion bars.