Jundee nimary

The Jundee Mine began producing gold for the first time in 1995 from an open pit operation. The underground mine was included in 1997. The same year the Jundee operation was expanded to include the nearby Nimary Gold mine. Thereafter it was known as the Jundee-Nimary Gold Mine which, at that time, was owned by Eagle Mining Corporation. Normandy Mining took over the mine in mid 2000 and the current owner, Newmont Mining Corporation, an American miner, acquired it in 2002.

Newmont Closed the Jundee Open Pit in 2007

Newmont Mining closed the last open pit mine at the Jundee-Nimary operation in 2007 although plans were underway to resume open pit mining again if positive drilling results proved positive. In 2007 there were 552 people employed at the Jundee-Nimary Mine but this figure dropped to 528 the following year with 155 of this number being permanent staff members, the rest were contractors. The mine is located in the centre of the Yandal Goldfield, 55 kilometres north east of the remote outback town of Wiluna in Western Australia.

A Challenging but Rewarding Gold Deposit

The Jundee-Nimary gold deposit has a strike of approximately four kilometres and a width of 2.5 kilometres. The mineralisation is hosted in tholeiitic basalt rock with a west dipping sequence. The Jundee-Nimary Mine produced 335,153 ounces of gold in 2010 and at that time was sitting on probable reserves of 760,000 ounces. 2011 production to September 30 alone was 266,000 ounces. The biggest challenge with the Jundee-nimary gold deposit is that although having rich veins, some are no wider than a pencil. There are also no less than 116 kilometres of horizontal development drives. The amount of drives puts a strain on haulage costs that are incurred in getting the ore out from underground.

MineGem Introduced to the Jundee Mine to Reduce Costs

In 2006 Newmont Mining successfully tested Caterpillers new MineGem technology at the Jundee-Nimary Mine. This involved controlling underground equipment from the surface. Many mines around Australia are now using MineGem systems but the Jundee-Nimary team claim they have the best of them all, as they utilise the full 100 percent of the new technologies capabilities. The company uses two Caterpiller 2900 load haul dumpers (LHD) with 14 tonne buckets. Both are linked up to MineGem technology. Previously it had been using three smaller boggers with 10 tonne buckets. The smaller boggers could only tram in first gear meaning it was a slow haul to the top.

Because strike lengths were so far away underground stockpiles had to be utilised and this incurred considerable cost. This is not necessary anymore. The MineGem system uses a laser guidance methodology. The lasers scan the tunnel walls and the data received is matched to a level plan. This system allows the LHD to drive itself with guidance from the walls. Tramming can take place at a much greater speed with a precision no human driver can even get close to. There is no operator in the cabin of the bogger as a telemetry system does all the essential bogging operations. The telemetry system cameras on the boggers send video signals to a screen in the operators cabin. The operator is still responsible for the bogger's motion but apart from that everything else is handled by MineGem. Laser driven boggers stay off the walls therefore no damage is ever occasioned as used to occur previously.

When Newmont acquired the Jundee Mine it was in administration and by 2008 it had mined 377,000 ounces of gold worth $342 million. This level of production made Newmont the biggest producer in the Asia-Pacific area.