Kanowna belle

The Kanowna Belle Gold Mine, located in the Eastern Goldfields of Western Australia, near Kalgoorlie, is steeped in gold mining industry history:

ï Gold was first discovered there in 1989 by Delta Gold NL and Geopeko Gold

ï Construction on an open pit began in 1992

ï Open pit mining began in 1993 with the mine being officially opened on November 19, 1993

ï Delta Gold Limited became the sole owner of the Kanowna Belle Mine in 1999

ï Delta Gold merged with Goldfields Limited in 2002 to form Auriongold Limited

ï Auriongold Limited was acquired by Placer Dome Inc in 2003

ï Placer Dome was acquired by Barrick Gold Corporation in 2006

ï MineGem remote control of boggers trialled at the Kanowna Belle Mine in 2010

The Kanowna Group of operations at the site includes the Kanowna Belle Gold Mine, the Paddington Mill and some smaller open pit gold mining operations.

Kanowna Belle Began as an Open pit and Developed into an Underground Mine

The gold deposit at the Kanowna Belle Mine is made up of a series of stacked lenses covering an area 1,000 metres long and 600 metres wide. The mine was initially worked as an open pit until underground mining commenced in 1995 by mining contractor Eltin Underground Operations. The open pit had earlier been stripped by Eltin Open Pit Operations with the use of a fleet of Caterpillar 785 trucks and Liebherr 994 and 984 hydraulic excavators.

When the open pit bottom reached a depth of 220 metres in 1998 underground production commenced. Eltin Contractors had earlier begun developing the access decline and other underground work in 1995. The decline was initially built to a depth of 1,020 metres from the surface and continued for 7.7 kilometres underground.

Long hole stoping with tailings paste backfill was first used as the method of mining underground at the Kanowna Belle underground operation but in 2004 this was changed to a pillarless retreat mining method. The underground equipment was supplied by Atlas Copco with it consisting of the following:

ï Three ST 1800 Scooptrams

ï Seven MT5000 50 tonne capacity mine trucks

ï 0ne Boltec 335SH rock bolting rig

ï Two Simba production drill rigs

ï One Rocket boomer 322S development drill rig

The mined ore is taken to the surface via the decline with a fleet of Caterpillar 775 haulage trucks.

Ore From the Kanowna Belle Mine is Processed at the Paddington Mill

Once on the surface the ore is taken to the Paddington Mill for processing where the ROM ( run of mine) ore is screened and crushed to between 200 and 250 mm. It then enters a two stage grinding circuit consisting of ball and ANI SAG mills. The cyclone underflow from the ball mill creates the feed for the primary flash flotation. Cyclone overflow is also treated by flotation and final tailings are leached in a tank using lime and cyanide. The gold is then recovered from a series of four adsorption tanks. Gold recovery is usually kept at around 89 to 90 percent.

In 2012 the Kanowna operation produced 228,000 ounces of gold at a cost of $925 an ounce. Probable and proven reserves at the mine stood at 632,000 ounces as at December 31 the same year.

Bit of an overview from Previous owner Barrick.

Update- The Kanowna Belle operations were acquired by Northern Star Resources Ltd on March 1st 2014.