Mine Details
Reefton
http://www.oceanagold.com
gold, Town, DiDo
Phone:
Address:
Level 5, 250 Collins Street, Melbourne, NZ, 3000
State: Level 5, 250 Collins Street, Melbourne, NZ, 3000
Email:
The Reefton gold mine is located on the West Coast of the South Island of New Zealand seven kilometres from the town of Reefton. It has been in production since 2007 and today comprises a series of open pits that have developed along a regional sheer structure as well as its offshoots.
Reefton Gold Treatment Plant has Been Operating Above Capacity
The Reefton open cut mining operation has a gold treatment plant that has a design capacity to handle up to one million tonnes of gold bearing ore a
year but in recent years has been handling a throughput averaging 60 percent above its design capacity. Ore entering the Reefton gold processing plant is subjected to crushing, grinding and flotation before the concentrate is de-watered.
Gold Bearing Concentrate From th Reefton Plant Taken to The Macraes Plant for Further Processing
Refractory concentrate produced at the Reefton gold treatment plant is taken 600 kilometres south of the mine, by rail, to Palmerston. It is unloaded from the railway wagons at Palmerston and taken, from there, by truck, to the Macraes gold processing plant where it undergoes further processing by exposing it to autoclave pressure oxidation and CIC (carbon- in-cyanide) leaching circuits. In 2010 the Reefton mine produced 85,843 ounces of gold, a mine record.
Reefton Operation to be Placed on Care and Maintenance to Ride out low Gold Price
Although the Reefton gold mine is nearing its life of mine expectancy of 2015, it is undergoing low world gold price pressures that threaten to force it to close earlier. In an effort to keep its New Zealand gold mines operational, Reefton mine owner, OceanaGold Corporation, has begun to cut back it New Zealand gold production levels and is considering placing the Reefton mine on care and maintenance. If this step was to be taken OceanaGold would still keep its current access arrangements with the New Zealand Government Department of Conservation through to 2019 and keep all permanent equipment and plant in place in anticipation of a future improvements in the gold price.
Reefton Rehabilitation to Proceed While Mine on Care and Maintenance
During the Reefton mine care and maintenance period OceanaGold would begin the rehabilitation of the mine open pits and carry out evaluation of developing an underground gold mining operation at the Globe Progress mine site. The company remains hopeful that the Blackwater mine at Waiuta, could begin being productive in 2015 if gold prices improved in the meantime.
The Reefton gold mine has been employing around 260 people and averaging a gold production level of over 75,500 ounces of gold annually for the last three years prior to 2014, however, in more recent times the gold price has dropped around 33 percent, thereby putting a considerable strain on keeping the mine economically viable.
OceanaGold Corporation is a large international gold producer that explores, develops and operates gold assets. It operates two open pit mines and one underground mine on the West Coast of New Zealand's South Island.
