Overview
Status | Care and Maintenance |
Mine Type | Underground |
Commodities |
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Mining Method |
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Production Start | ...  |
Mine Life | 3.5 years (as of Jan 1, 2018) |
In October 2018, the Project was placed into care and maintenance by the then-operator WPG, who was under at that time under administration.
The historical high-grade underground Challenger Mine produced ~1.2Moz gold while in operation from 2002 – 2018. The Challenger Mine is maintained in a state of care and maintenance and is not a priority focus for the Company. While the Challenger Mine is not a development priority for the Company, the Challenger Mill presents additional opportunities for processing ore from the Tarcoola Project which was previously undertaken during 2017 and 2018. Additionally, it could be utilised for processing regional mineralisation in the vicinity of the mill. The Challenger Mill is the only gold mill in the region, and is in a state of care and maintenance. |
Source:
p. 49,75
Challenger 2 Pty Ltd Owner of:
• Company’s interest(s) in Challenger Tenements;
• Challenger Mine, Challenger Mill, and Challenger Camp.
Contractors
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Deposit Type
- Metamorphic hosted
- Vein / narrow vein
Summary:
The Challenger deposit occurs within the Mulgathing Complex of the Christie Subdomain in the north- western Gawler Craton, with the area characterised by Archaean to mid-Proterozoic high- grade metamorphic (granulite facies) gneissic basement.
Gold mineralisation at the Challenger Mine occurs in deformed quartz veins within narrow plunging lodes hosted by gneiss. The lodes represent the limbs and hinge zones of an isoclinal fold package around 500m wide containing multiple subparallel lodes in a deposit with intense structural control and a dominant 30-degree plunge to the north east.
The mineralised structures are interpreted to have a high level of continuity with individual shoots being mined and interpreted through drilling data for over 2,200m of plunge extent from surface (1,193 mRL). The deposit extends from surface to -147 mRL (~1.3km depth).
Challenger lodes include Challenger West (CW), Challenger South-Southwest (CSSW), Aminus, M1, M2, M3 and South East Zone (SEZ). The lodes are offset some 150m in plan by the 215 Shear at a depth of 900 – 1,000 metres, but continue to plunge at a similar orientation below the shear and all are open to depth. M1 and M2 have been mined on several levels below the 215 Shear. The deposit has been developed to ~1,130m depth (065 mRL).
High-grade gold mineralisation is associated with coarse-grained quartz veins with feldspar, cordierite, and sulphides within a hornblende orthoclase chlorite-s ........

Summary:
The Challenger Project Tenements host the historical high-grade underground Challenger Mine which produced ~1.2Moz gold while in operation from 2002 – 2018.
The Challenger Mine is maintained in a state of care and maintenance. Due to the depth of the mine and requirement for substantial investment to renew the geological understanding of the deposit at depth, it is not a priority focus for the Company.
The Challenger resource models were used to create detailed life of mine (LOM) designs for the extraction of each resource lode. The design was based around an uphole retreat, top down stoping sequence. This mining technique has been used in the past, and will be used in the future.
Mining of the narrow vein Challenger lodes has been designed with a minimum mining width of 1.5m. Based on historical mining at Challenger an external dilution of 40% has been applied in the calculation of all reserves, unless the development has been completed and a full stope analysis has been produced indicating variations to this dilution based on geotechnical input. A specific stope extraction factor has been applied to each level in the reserve estimation, based on the geological resource model, geotechnical requirements and the extraction sequence of each orebody shoot.
Source:
Summary:

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Production:
All production numbers are expressed as metal in doré.
Operational Metrics:
Metrics | 2021 | 2017 | 2016 |
Annual processing capacity
| ......  | | |
Ore tonnes mined
| ......  | 480,416 t | 518 kt |
Tonnes processed
| ......  | 602,105 t | 386 kt |
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Reserves at June 30, 2022:
Mineral Resources classified as ‘inferred’ are approximate, the cut-off grades applied are 2.0 g/t Au.
Category | Tonnage | Commodity | Grade | Contained Metal |
Inferred
|
0.53 Mt
|
Gold
|
3.9 g/t
|
65.6 koz
|
Commodity Production Costs:
| Commodity | Units | 2017 | 2016 |
Cash costs
|
Gold
|
USD
|
|
|
Total cash costs
|
Gold
|
USD
|
|
763 / oz
|
All-in sustaining costs (AISC)
|
Gold
|
USD
|
1,532 / oz
|
|
Operating Costs:
| Units | 2016 |
Combined mining costs ($/t milled)
|
USD
| 164.78 |
Corporate Filings & Presentations:
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