Mt todd

The Mt Todd gold mining project is located about 250 kilometres south of Darwin and 55 kilometres north west of Katherine in the Northern Territory. The Mt Todd mine has had a previous history of gold mining andold mine infrastructure still exists on the mining lease that covers an area of 5365 hectares. There remains the old open cut, Batman Pit, that is currently under water, the remains of a former processing plant, a raw water dam, low grade ore stockpiles, a tailings dam, heap leach pad and a 16 million tonne waste rock dump.

Mt Todd Gold Mine in Northern Territory to be Re-opened by Vista Gold

International mining company, Vista Gold Corporation, is proposing to re-open the Mt Todd mine through its subsidiary company, Vista Gold Australia Pty Ltd. Vista Gold believes the Mt Todd mine is the largest undeveloped gold resource in the world. Vista Gold Corporation has gold mining interests in Indonesia, Mexico and the United States besides the MtTodd mining project in Australia.

Mt Todd Mine Processing Plant to Process 17.8 Million Tonnes of ore Annually

Vista Gold Australia Pty Ltd proposes to process around 17.8 million tonnes of mineralised ore a year at the Mt Todd open cut gold mine using carbon-in-leach technology. The mine tailings will be detoxified and stored while the water contained in the tailings is drained to be recycled through the processing plant as process water. The unrefined gold bars, gold dore, produced at the Mt Todd mine will be taken to the port at Darwin from where it will be shipped to a refinery.

Vista Gold is planning to construct a new processing plant where the remnants of the old plant now stand. The plant will treat free milling gold bearing ore using conventional methods by recovering cyanide leachable gold using the carbon-in-leach technology. The Mt Todd mine will operate as a 24 hour a day mining operation incorporating two shifts of 12 hours each, with drilling and blasting techniques used to loosen the rock to allow it to be mined. The blasted rock will then be loaded onto haulage trucks that will take it to either a stockpile, run-of-mine pa, or taken directly to the crusher. Crushing and grinding of the ore will take place within the processing plant before it will be adsorped, detoxified and then have its gold content extracted.

The estimated 223 million tonnes of processed ore to be produced at the Mt Todd gold mine will take 13 years to complete. The schedule of the life of the Mt Todd mine will include a construction stage of two years and a rehabilitation stage of four years, giving the site a total mining activity presance of 19 years. About 450 perple will be employed during the Mt Todd construction stage and around 350 in permanent jopbs during its production stage.

Mt Todd Mine Workers to be Housed in Kathrine

A mining workers accommodation camp will be built to house the construction workforce accommodating mainly fly-in-fly-out workers. This will be upgraded to accommodate the permanent workers once the mine is up and running. The company is also planning to build 120 family homes and 100 single accommodation units at Kathrine.