Perseverance coolgardie

The Perseverance gold deposit is located near the Western Australian mining town of Coolgardie in the Eastern Goldfields of Western Australia. It is wholly owned by Focus Minerals Limited and is part of the company's wider Tindals Mining Centre.

Perseverance -Coolgardie Mine is Part of the Tindals Mining Centre
There are five major ore bodies that make up the Tindals underground operation at Coolgardie, these being; Perseverance, Countess, Empress, Cyanide and Tindals. They have a gold endowment of 2,500 ounces a vertical metre. A Resource of 3.16 million tonnes grading at 4.4 grams per tonne which will realise an amount of 444,000 ounces of gold and a Reserve of 1,000 million tonnes grading at 3.6 grams a tonne with a realisation amount of 115,000 ounces of gold. The ore bodies have a production rate of 45,000 tonnes a month returning 3.5 grams a tonne. This level of production is expected to last for the next five years. Since Focus Minerals recommissioned their underground operations in 2008 it has produced more than 200,000 ounces of gold and this has been increasing ever since.

The Tindals underground mines at Coolgardie, that includes the Perseverance Mine, are situated in the midst of one of the highest gold grading areas of the Coolgardie gold fields and the underground workings only go to a depth of 400 metres. The mines are all accessed by a single portal with a decline five metres wide and five metres high nearer the surface but half a metre higher in the lower sections.

Portal Split to Accommodate Four Separate Declines
Since the portal was first cut 15 years ago it has been split into four separate declines to allow access to the different deposits. Three of these declines remain in use, these are the ones leading to the Cyanide, Empress and Perseverance deposits. The Empress decline also provides access to the Tindals Deep and Countess deposits. The Cyanide decline has only been revived in recent times after not being used for 13 years.

Development Mining at Perseverance -Coolgardie Mine Carried out by Barminco
Underground mining at the Perseverance ñ Coolgardie deposit it carried out in the conventional manner with top down sub-level longhole open stoping without the use of fill. The level intervals are usually around 20 or 23 metres. Mining development at Perseverance was completed by mining contractor Barminco in 2012.

Ore Processed at the Three Hills Processing Plant
The Perseverance ñ Coolgardie gold zone is of particularly high grade and quite close to the town of Coolgardie. The ore from the mine was initially treated at the Higginsville Mining processing plant but Focus transferred all processing to its own Three Mile Hill plant in May 2009. The Three Mile Hill Mill had been extensively refurbished by Como Engineering. The basic circuit remained untouched but considerable upgrading took place with the replacement of all three crushers. The company also installed a Gekko and Falcon gravity circuit as well as a new elution, gold smelting and carbon regeneration area. The refurbished processing plant was commissioned in late 2009 and the first gold bar poured on January 13, 2010.

Focus Minerals Limited was originally known as Austminex. The name change occurred in 2005. In early 2005 Austminex had shares in the Redemption Joint Venture, that owned the Coolgardie mine in partnership with Herald Resources and Matador. Matador eventually merged with Committee Bay Resources and the mine was closed in August 2005. Focus became the sole owner of the mine in 2008 when it successfully purchased Committee Bay Resources share of the Redemption Joint Venture.