Stawell

The Canadian owned Stawell gold mines are situated just two kilometres from the Victorian regional centre of Stawell that has a population of around 6,500 residents. The mine is accessed via sealed government maintained roads although the roads within the mine site itself are unsealed but well maintained. There is a locally maintained sealed airfield at Stawell and the town is situated alongside the Adelaide to Melbourne railway.

Stawell Gold Mines Have Been in Continuous Operation for 25 Years
Stawell gold mines have been operating for more than 25 years and have retained a highly skilled, mainly local workforce, many of whom are contractors with a long time connection with the mine. Because of the mines closeness to the town of Stawell there is no need for a mining camp as the town itself provides all the modern facilities required for comfortable country living such as a hospital, police station, a large variety of shops and schools. Water is not a problem and the town is part of the state wide electricity grid. Stawell Mines are situated in the southern Wimmera where the temperature is not as hot as is experienced further north during the summer months. No rain falls on an average of 70 days a year, which allows for a lot of outdoor activity to be enjoyed.

Modern and Extensive Facilities at the Stawell Mines
The facilities at the Stawell Mines are typical of a modern gold mining operation and are quite extensive. Surface infrastructure includes such things as workshops, laboratory, core shed, offices and gold processing plant. The larger facilities include an extensive tailings dam that covers an area of 96 hectares and takes all the tailings from the gold processing plant. The mining lease also has three freshwater dams and power is obtained from the state wide power grid.

Gold Strike at Stawell Extends to 1,500 Metres below Big Hill
One of the Stawell mines is the Magdala underground mine that has a decline from a portal situated near the processing plant. The decline splits into two declines, one a south and the other a north decline. The south decline access the Golden Gift ore bodies. To enable easier ore mining, extraction levels have been developed at 20 to 25 metre vertical intervals. Mining activity at the Stawell mining operations rakes place over a three kilometre strike length that extends to a depth of 1,500 metres from the top of Big Hill.

Mining at the Magdala Mine is undertaken via the bench stoping method which incorporates cemented rock fill pillars in the primary stopes along with rock filled secondary stopes. Extraction from the Golden Gift ore body and the narrower Magdala ore zone is by using retreat open stoping along with CRF (cemented rock fill), a combonation of rock fill and CRF or all rock fill with pillars. The Magdala ore body stope sizes are usually from 2,000 to 10,000 tonnes. However, the Golden Gift ore body, having higher quality width and tenor of reserves have stopes of up to 15,000 tonnes. All stope ore is recovered with the use of loaders under remote control of the operator. The ore is then taken to the surface by 60 tonne trucks. The Stawell gold processing plant comprises the conventional CIL (carbon-in-leach) recovery circuit after the ore has been crushed, ground and subjected to sulphide flotation.

Stawell Mine Changes Hands Many Times in Recent Years
Gold mining company Perseverance acquired Leviathan Resources stake in Stawell mines in 2007 with Perseverance being acquired by Northgate the following year. In 2011 Northgate was acquired by AuRico and AuRico being acquired by the present owners, Crocodile Gold Corporation, in May 2012.

Stawell Mine to Close at end of 2013
The bad news for the 400 odd employees and contractors who rely of the Stawell Mine for their livelihood is that underground mining will be exhausted by the end of 2013 with the known ore reserves becoming mined out, although the processing plant will continue working until the end of 2014.
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