Norseman

Tulla Resources Group Pty Ltd is the contractor that manages and operates the Norseman Project in Western Australia for Norsemant Gold plc. Tulla Resources are planning to be producing around 100,000 ounces of gold at the Norseman mining operation by 2014. They are also focusing on expanding their resource base from the current 3.4 million ounces of gold averaging around 4.7 grams a tonne that will be returned from a JORC Resource of 22 million tonnes.

The Norseman Project is the Longest Continuously Running Gold
Mine in Australia
The Norseman Gold Project is Australia's longest continuously operating gold mining undertaking as it has been producing gold at the site for more that 70 years. During this time it has produced more than 5.5 million ounces of gold.

The Norseman Project Mineralisation Also Contains Magnetite Iron Ore
The Norseman Project that covers an area of 2,360 square kilometres of the mineral rich Norseman-Wiluna greenstone belt contains a measured resource of 5.6 million tonnes of gold bearing ore grading at 1.9 grams a tonne, an indicated resource of 6.7 million tonnes grading at 5.1 grams of gold a tonne and an inferred resource of 10 million tonnes of ore with an average grading of 6.2 grams a tonne of gold. The project also contains considerable deposits of magnetite iron ore.

The North Royal open pit is the Only Mine Currently Producing at the Norseman Project
At the present time the Norseman Project is only operating from the North Royal open pit. All the ore obtained from this mine is fed into the nearby Phoenix gold treatment plant. This plant uses a conventional carbon-in- leach and milling method of processing. It has a throughput capacity of 720,000 tonnes a year. Other mines that make up the Norseman Project include the Crown, Bullen, OK and Harlequin. Any of these mines could be brought back into production again in future years. The gold producing potential of the project was clearly demonstrated in 2009 when it produced 80,000 ounces of gold.

Phoenix Gold Processing Plant Procedure
The Phoenix gold processing plant treats ROM (run of mine) ore from stockpiles in the following manner:

- The ore is fed, by front end loader, into the primary crusher. Once the ore is crushed it is further fed through a two stage milling process that involves a ball mill and a SAG mill, including the use of a pebble crusher that takes care of any oversize ore bodies to facilitates SAG mill operation.

- The course gold is removed during the grinding process with the use of two centrifugal gravity concentrators. In this way gravity gold that is recovered makes up for 60 percent of the gold contained in the ore feed.

- The next process involves the addition of a sodium and lime solution to create a ground slurry. The gold is leached from this ore slurry by means of six Pachuca tanks that are air agitated. The process used carbon in the final five tanks for the adsorption of any soluble gold. An electrowinning circuit and the use of conventional elution recovers gold from the carbon.

- Both the gravity and the carbon in leach gold is then smelted into gold bars to be further refined into fine gold elsewhere.

Left over slurry tailings are pumped into a storage facility that is situated about a kilometre from the processing plant. This storage facility was completed in mid 2008 and is able to accommodate up to 10 years of mining operation. Bore water is used during the whole process and power is supplied by an on site power station that is operated independently from Norseman Gold plc. The power produced also goes to service the nearby Norseman township.
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