Woodlawn mine

The Woodlawn Mine, that was closed in 1998 when its operating company went into receivership, is soon to be given a new lease on life by Canadian-Australian mining company, TriAusMin. The company was granted approval from the NSW State Government to proceed with its re-opening (July 2013). When the mine re-opens it will be operated as two mining projects (1) the mining of its existing tailings dams and (2) an underground mining operation.

Rubbish Dump and Wind Turbine Farm will Exist Alongside the new Woodlawn Mining Operation
Since the Woodlawn Mine has been closed it has been used as a rubbish dump for waste products from Sydney, as well as an eleven turbine wind farm producing electricity. The rubbish is dumped into the void created by an open cut operation that previously existed at the old mine site. When TriAusMin re-opens the mine it will not interfere with the rubbish dump or wind farm operations that will continue as usual. The mine re-opening will create 140 ongoing mining jobs that will be filled by workers from nearby communities.

Woodlawn Mine is Located 200 Kilometres From Sydney
The Woodlawn Mine that is located about 200 kilometres from Sydney produced 13.8 million tonnes of ore from 1978 to 1998, when it was closed. The ore, obtained from the open pit, an underground operation and satellite deposits averaged grades of; 0.5 grams per tonne of gold, 74 grams a tonne of silver, 1.6 percent copper, 3.6 percent lead and 9.1 percent zinc.

The Woodlawn Mine will Consist of Two Operations
The re-opening of the Woodlawn Mine will involve the extracting and processing of polymetallic sulphide ore and tailings. It will consist of the Woodlawn Underground Project (WUP) and the Woodlawn Retreatment Project (WRP). The WUP will entail the excavation of a box cut and underground mine development with the extraction of polymetallic sulphide ore, should further exploration prove successful. The WRP will involve the construction of an ore processing plant that will be able to process the mined ore as well as processing of existing tailings material that, until now, has been stored in three tailings dams.

New ore Processing Plant at the Woodlawn Mine will process 1.5 Million Tonnes Annually
The ore processing plant designed for the Woodlawn Mine will be able to process 1.5 million tonnes of ore and tailings a year. The process will include the grinding, sequential flotation, thickening and filtration to produce the lead, copper and zinc concentrate for exporting to overseas smelters.

Woodlawn Mine Objectives
The main objectives of the revival of the Woodlawn Mine operation include the following:

- To always carry out the mining operation in an environmentally responsible manner by fully understanding and being able to manage all environmental impacts
- The optimising of economic viability, while at the same time developing the Woodlawn resource in a way that will maximise resource recovery
- The provision of a medium term supply of lead, copper and zinc concentrate for the international and domestic market

The Woodlawn Mine has the capacity to produce 1.5 million tonnes of tailings and underground ore a year, this equates to around 150,000 tonnes of lead copper and zinc annually for the next 21 years. The project is expected to attract investors, particularly those in North America, as it has been proven viable in today's market, mainly because of existing transport infrastructure and power, strong community support and a good resource base.