Wombola dam

The Wombola Dam open pit gold mine in the Eastern Goldfields Region of Western Australia is located about 40 kilometres south east of Kalgoorlie, off the Kalgoorlie to Mount Monger Road. The first stage of development has been completed at the Wombola Dam mine and mining of the larger pit is now due to recommence during 2014.

Wombola Dam Mine is owned by Silver Lake Resources

The Wombola Dam open pit gold mine is wholly owned by Silver Lake Resources, a gold mining company based in Perth that has acquired the tenements of the Mount Monger Goldfields, of which the Wombola Dam open pit belongs. In January 2013 Silver Lake Resources merged with Integra Mining, a move that created a gold mining company that now has a resource base of 6.4 million ounces of gold.

Wombola Dam Mined in the Conventional Manner

The gold bearing deposit at the Wombola Dam open pit is mined by the conventional method with five metre berms and 15 metre benches. Open pit mines are generally dug on benches (vertical levels of the hole), the flat area of each step is known as the berm.

Gold bearing ore mined from the Wombola Dam mine will be processed through the Silver Lake Resources owned, Lakewood or Randalls gold processing plants:

The Lakewood Gold Processing Facility †completed an an expansion upgrade at the end of 2011 that increased its processing capacity to 700,000 tonnes a year of hard rock and 900,000 tonnes a year of soft rock. The plant can operate at one million tonnes a year following the construction of a ROM (run-of-mine) bin and completion of a new tailings storage facility.

The Randalls Gold Processing Facility †that is located 65 kilometres south east of Kalgoorlie was acquired by Silver Lakes Resources in January 2013 as part of the merger with Integra Mining Limited. An upgrade was completed on August 2011 when a second ball mill was installed as a re-grind mill, the gravity gold circuit was tripled in size along with the adding of another leach tank and other major imporvements. The upgrade increased the Randalls processing plant throughput capacity to 1.2 million tonnes of ore a year.

Most of the gold mined from the Wombola Dam open pit mine undergoes metallurgical processing that is straightforward and conventional. Gold recovered rates from this process range from 85 to 92 percent.

Wombola Dam Mine a Part of the North Monger Gold Mining Leases

Silver Lake Resources purchased the North Monger gold mining leases from Cortona Resources in July 2010. It was this acquisition that breathed life back into the Wombola Dam and Wombola Pit open pit mining operations. Silver Lake Resources had earlier developed the Christmas Flat open pit gold mine that began production in June 2009 and ceased mining in 2010. Mining also took place at the Costello open pit mine in October 2010. Mining ceased at the Costello open pit in 2011.

The Mount Monger goldfield is a subdivision of the larger Eastern Goldfields. Gold mining began in the Mount Monger area in the early 1900's and the field today is still marked by a series of historic workings. However, early miners were mainly focused on exploiting sub-cropping mineralisation with most of the old workings being dug to no more than 80 metres below the surface.