Wallbrook

The Wallbrook open pit gold mine at South Laverton in the rich Kalgoorlie centred North Eastern Goldfields of Western Australia is part of the Saracen Porphyry District Project ,40 kilometres from the Carosue Processing Plant. It was acquired from Jackson Gold in 2007.

Four Gold Zones at the Wallbrook Mine Site
Gold in the Walbrook Mine area is located in four distinct zones, Crusader,
Red Flag, Redbrook and Eleven Bells. All of these deposits are within a two kilometre strike distance. The mineralisation at the Wallbrook open pit is visible at the surface which makes for easy access to oxidised material that is used for blending purposes. One of the most striking features being that the mineralisation extends laterally as well as depth. Company geologists interpret the ore body as being suited to taking large mechanised zones at lower cut-off grades. When mining began at the Wallbrook open pit the resource stood at 331,000 ounces with reserves at 66,000 ounces of gold.

Access to the Processing Plant is via a Haulage Road
Access to the Wallbrook Mine from the Carosue Processing Plant is obtained by means of the Porphyry haulage road that was originally built to service the Porphyry open pit in 2010. This road runs to the west of the Wallbrook Mine.

Saracen, a Fast Growing Australian Mining Company
The owner of the Wallbrook Mine, Saracen Mineral Holdings Limited, is a fast growing Australian gold producer rising from a gold production level of 110,000 ounces of gold at the end of the 2011 financial year to a targeted 250,000 ounces a year. Since its assets were first acquired from Jackson Gold it has raised its gold Resource to 4.1 million ounces and Reserve to 1.1 million ounces through an extensive exploration program.

Wallbrook ore Processed at the Carosue Dam Processing Plant
Gold ore from the Wallbrook open cut mine is taken to the Carosue Dam Plant for processing. This plant was built in 2000 by JR Engineering and commissioned later the same year. It operated non-stop through to mid 2005 when it was placed on care and maintenance because of low gold prices at that time. Saracen acquired the processing plant from St Barbara Limited in early 2006 as part of the South Laverton tenements. The facility had been kept in perfect working condition and only minimal refurbishment was required to have it capable of processing 2.4 million tonnes of ore by late 2009. The extra production was achieved by blending soft oxide with transitional ore types into the mill feed.

The Carosue Processing Plant follows a simple process of combining a two stage crushing to get a final product of 30mm and a single grinding application to bring it down to 160 microns. The gold is then recovered by means of gravity concentration and CIL treatment (carbon-in-leach cyanidation). The plant had previously processed 10 million tonnes of ore over a five year period averaging 2.2 million tonnes a year that delivered 700,000 ounces of gold. Since processing at the plant has resumed in early 2010 production has been kept at 120,000 ounces a year from all the South Laverton operations.

Modern Accommodation for Workers at the Wallbrook Mine
Other on site facilities consist of; emergency response, first aid rooms, stores warehouse, a maintenance and electrical warehouse and an administration office. Three kilometres south of the processing plant there is an accommodation village which was built in 2000 and enhanced in 2011 that houses 360 personnel. In the first half of 2011 a second accommodation village was built closer to the Wallbrook Mine to house 80 personnel. The accommodation villages have both dry and wet messes, internet cafe's, gymnasiums, Wi-Fi, Tennis courts, dining rooms and recreational rooms.