Mary mac south

After acquiring the Mary Mac South open pit gold mine in 2011, a part of the West Laverton Group, which also comprises the Mary Mac and Craiggiemore deposits, Focus Minerals built its total gold production to 100,000 ounces a year for the first time. It was a major turnaround at a time when the price of gold was at a premium.

West Laverton Group Acquisition Gave Focus Minerals 1,650 Square Kilometres of Tenements
The West Laverton Group acquisition allowed focus Minerals to suddenly jump ahead of its long term growth plans, effectively doubling the company's mineral resources to 4.3 million ounces. It also grew its tenement holdings to more than 1,650 square kilometres of highly prospective landholdings spread over two of Western Australia's largest and most productive gold bearing regions, that of Laverton and the famous Coolgardie gold fields. By June 2013 the two areas had produced more than 475,000 ounces of gold for the company.

Shandong Gold Buys Into Focus Minerals
Success grew and it was not long before Focus minerals had one of the strongest bank balances of any Australian gold mining company. This was strengthened even further when giant world gold mining company Shandong Gold from China became a major shareholder.

Mining Suspended at Laverton and Coolgardie
However, trouble came to the company during the first half of 2013 when the global price of gold began dropping from its historic highs. As a result, Focus Minerals took the decision to suspend mining across all its operations, including that of the West Laverton Group.

At the time of Focus Minerals suspending operations in May 2013, it was employing 50 personnel at its Laverton Gold Project but the company stuck by its decision to suspend operations while the mines remained commercially unviable.

Mary Mac South Orebody Discovered in 2006
The Mary Mac South gold deposit was discovered in 2006 by its then owner, Crescent Gold Limited, which had plans to begin mining the orebody by the end of the year. The mine is situated west of Crescent Gold's Sickle ore body where open pit minining began during the December quarter of 2006.

Shandong Gold Group Investment Hit by Mining Suspensions
The decision to suspend gold mining operations at Coolgardie and Laverton came only seven months after Chinese miner Shandong Gold Group acquired 51 percent shareholding in the small exploration and gold mining company, Focus Minerals. At the time of Shandong Gold's investment into Focus Minerals the company anticipated producing 200,000 ounces of gold a year. However, before its first year had expired, Focus Minerals had suspended all its gold mining operations throughout Western Australia.

Low Grade Orebody, High Operating Costs and Low Gold Prices Cause Mine Closure
Before the suspension of mining activities Focus Minerals had been working on reducing mining costs by 21 percent, according to media reports at the time. However, the ore being mined was at a lower grade and maintaining lower operating costs could not be sustained, a factor that became particularly troublesome when gold prices deteriorated.
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