Manuka

Southern Cross Goldfields acquired the Manuka Silver Mine Project in central New South Wales in September, 2014, from PPB Advisory, the administrators managing the affairs of CCR (Cobar Consolidated Resources). The Manuka project was previously owned by CCR (Cobar Consolidated Resources) and was mined under the name of the 'Wonawinta Silver Mine.' The project is located in central New South Wales near the mining centre of Cobar.

Manuka Silver Project Back in Receivers Hands in no More Than a Year

In November, 2015, the Manuka mine has once again been placed in the hands of the same administrator, PPB Advisory, after resources at its nearby Mt Boppy gold mine were considerably slashed. The gold reserves at the Mt Boppy mine had been used as the basis on which Black Oak Minerals were able to service the money borrowed to develop both projects.

Mt Boppy Gold Reserves Downgrade Loses Manuka Mine Backing

New drilling at the Mt Boppy mine project lowered the gold resource at the mine to 482,000 tonnes showing 3.4 grams a tonne which would produce 53,000 ounces of gold, whereas previously the resource was believed to have been 809,000 tonnes at 3.9 grams a tonne which would have returned 102,000 ounces of gold. In a similar vein gold reserves at the Mt Boppy mine are now considered to be 463,000 tonnes grading at 3.2 grams a tonne for 48,000 ounces whereas it previously stood at 598,000 tonnes at 4.1 grams a tonne which would have produced 78,000 ounces. Such a decrease in reserves and resources adversely affected Black Oak Minerals ability to service their loan arrangements and the company was therefore placed in administration. When Southern Cross Goldfields merged with Polymetals Mining to form the one company, Black Oak Minerals Limited, it inherited the Mt Boppy Gold Project.

Manuka Mine has Silver Resource of 60 Million Ounces

When the Wonawinta Silver mine was acquired by Southern Cross Goldfields it came with infrastructure and a processing plant with a capacity to process more than two million ounces of silver a year. The plant had cost over $60 million to build. It also had a JORC silver Resource of 60 million ounces, a nine million ounce silver Reserve and 840 square kilometres of highly prospective exploration area.

Mining Restarted at the Manuka Project in September, 2014

The Manuka Silver Project started mining operations in September, 2014, with the first silver pour producing a 136 kilogram dore that equated to approximately 4,000 ounces of silver. It was anticipated that the mine would build up to a production level of 200,000 ounces of silver a month. After the expiration of about six months the processing plant was to begin processing Mt Boppy gold as mining had begun there in March, 2015. In the meantime, the processing plant at the Manuka mine had been reset to incorporate a 1,500kW ball mill, an upgrade of the CIL (carbon in leach) circuit and other improvements to enhance throughput and recovery.

Gold bearing ore was from the Mt Boppy open pit was trucked to the Manuka mine where it was processed. This eliminated the need to construct a processing plant at the Mt Boppy site.It was planned to produce 69,000 ounces of gold over the following two year period to finance the two projects