Nyngan

The construction of an accommodation facility to house workers employed at the Tritton copper mine at Nyngan in New South Wales in 2009, in response to the adverse effects of the Global Financial Crisis (GFC) that struck the world's mining industry at that time, helped the mine owner, Straits Resources Limited, reduce costs associated with its fly-in-fly-out workforce. The accommodation facility provided accommodation and meals for around 60 mine workers.

The accommodation was built to cater for mine employees who didn't live in the immediate district surrounding the Nyngan mine but who reside in outlying areas such as Dubbo, Condobilin, Parkes and Cobar.

Nyngan Mine Owned by Straits Resources Limited
The Nyngan mine is owned by Tritton Copper Mines of New South Wales, a fully owned subsidiary of Straits Resources Limited. Mining within the Tritton mining lease area began in 1992 at the open pit Murrawombie operation. This mine was part of the Girilambone copper mine. Open pit mining ceased at the Girilambone mine in 1999.

Tritton Orebody at Nyngan First Mined in 2004
The Tritton ore body was first mined in 2004 following the construction of an access decline. Stope production began near the end of the first quarter in 2005. In its first year the Tritton mine produced 23,088 tonnes of copper in concentrate. The Tritton underground copper mine at Nyngan uses a conventional processing plant that consists of a crushing and flotation facility. The copper concentrate produced is exported to the Asia Pacific Region.

Noted Nyngan Orebody Similarities Prove to be Successful
As mining at the Tritton copper mine developed it was noticed, through studies and observations, that similarities existed between Tritton and ore bodies that had previously been mined in the same area. To take advantage of these similarities the company introduced extension drilling in 2006 targeting the sulphide deposits below the previously mine oxide pits. This drilling program proved to be successful with sufficient resources being identified to support development of new underground declines at Murrawombie and Larsons/North East, along with an upgrading of the processing plant. Development of the declines began in 2007 and at the same time the processing plant capacity was increased to 1.4 million tonnes a year from its previous one million tonnes.

GFC Forces Tritton Copper Mine at Nyngan to cut Costs
The GFC forced a suspension of the development of the declines in 2008 and at the same time the company decided to build a 30 room accommodation facility to house mine workers in Nyngan at the corner of Nyngan and Pangee Streets, to avoid the costly practice of flying workers in and out of the area as it had previously been doing.

Nyngan Copper Mine Reaches Targetted Production Rate
Straits Resources undertook a period of consolidation during 2010 while preparing the Nyngan mine's future. It was decided to prepare the operation to have it process a minimum of 1.4 million tonnes of ore annually that would give it a minimum copper metal production of 25,000 tonnes a year. To reach these targets the North/East mine had to begin a 300,000 tonnes a year production rate midway through 2010. It also changed to a transverse stoping method of mining by mining the open stopes to make for more efficient production from the deposit that was flattening at depth. A pastefill plant was brought online in early 2011 that helped increase the ore recovery rate from a previous 55 percent to 94 percent. In the last two quarters of 2011 the Tritton copper mine at Nyngan had reached the target and was producing over 25,000 tonnes of copper metal a year.
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