Maxwells

The Maxwell open pit gold mine in the Eastern Goldfields Region of Western Australia is located 50 kilometres south east of the gold mining centre of Kalgoorlie. It is accessed via the Mount Monger Road that is sealed for the first 15 kilometres out of Kalgoorlie when it becomes an unsealed all weather road for the next 35 kilometres. The mine is part of the Silver Lake Resources Mount Monger project that covers an area of 1,728 square kilometres. Silver Lake Resources is a large gold exploration and gold producing company that has a gold resource base in excess of six†million ounces as well as a gold reserve of 1.7 million ounces in highly prospective areas.

Mining Commenced at the Maxwells Mine in 2013

Mining began at the Maxwells open pit during the second quarter of 2013. The ore from the mine is processed through the Silver Lake Resources owned, Randalls Gold Processing Facility, situated 20 kilometres to the west of the Maxwells mining operation.

In the 2012/13 financial year the Maxwells open pit mine produced 44,000 ounces of gold with an expected increase of a further 30,000 ounces in the current 2013/14 financial year. Exploratory drilling and evaluation being carried out at the Maxwells open pit is expected to support the mine becoming an underground operation when the open pit is eventually mined out, as the Maxwells gold deposit is a high grade resource that extends far below the current open pit design. The deepest drill hole to date confirms high grade gold mineralisation exists at considerable depths, over 200 metres below the existing mineral resource, for example; the test drill test at 404 metres returned a result of 2.2 metres grading at 9.9 grams a tonne.

The Maxwells Mine is Part of the Mount Monger Tenements

The Maxwells open pit gold mine is part of the Silver Lake Resources owned, Mount Monger goldfield, a sub-division of the wider Eastern Goldfields Province. The first gold mining operation commenced at Mount Monger in the early 1900's with historical workings extending in a northerly direction under shallow alluvial cover, leading towards a considerable drainage channel. These early workings concentrated on the sub-cropping mineralisation and seldom went to a depth any greater than 80 metres below the surface.

Lease holding were originally fragmented being held by numerous individual miners. This became a constraint that stopped the Mount Monger gold field from growing, as it was not unusual to have a particular development cease operations because the ore body it was following carried over into the next lease boundary owned by neighbouring tenement holders. This situation grew until eventually there were no less than 25 independent mine workings operating on the Mount Monger goldfield.

Silver Lake Resources Gained the Maxwells Mine When it Merged With Integra Mining

In January 2013 Silver Lake Resources merged its operations with Integra Mining, a move that created a gold producing company with a gold resource of 6.4 million ounces. The assets Silver Lake Resources gained as a result of the merger included the Maxwells open pit mine along with the Cock-eyed Bob underground mine and the Randalls gold treatment plant.