Mining Intelligence and News
Australia

Morning Star (Woods Point) Mine

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Australia

Morning Star (Woods Point) Mine

Location: 112 km NNE from Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

Address:

12 Anderson Street
PO Box 195
West Ballarat
Victoria, Australia
3350

Contacts:

Additional Resources for Suppliers & Investors

Categories

Overview

Mine TypeUnderground
StatusClosing / Closed
Commodities
  • Gold
Mining Method
  • Narrow reef drill & blast
Backfill type ... Lock
Production Start... Lock
SnapshotRe-commenced gold production at Morning Star gold mine (part of Woods Point Gold Project) in October 2022. First gold bar poured in October and first on site bar in early December 2022.

As advised in ASX Announcement on 21 March 2023, due to a lack of funds, the Directors of White Rock Minerals Limited placed the Morning Star Gold Mine into a care and maintenance phase while they assessed the strategy for the project. After a further period where a process to sell the asset was unsuccessful, it was further decided to close the mine altogether.

Since closure, most of the plant and equipment making up the assets of MSG have been sold, but overall, the returns have been disappointing. Additionally, MSG has received several notices from the various Regulators.

MSG does not have the means to lodge the increased bond, nor deal appropriately with the alleged environmental issues.

Owners

SourceSource
CompanyInterestOwnership
White Rock Minerals Ltd. 95 % Indirect
Morning Star Gold NL (MSG) is a 95% owned subsidiary of AuStar Gold Limited, which in turn is a 100% owned subsidiary of White Rock Minerals Limited (WRM), with the remaining 5% of MSG held by a number of other shareholders. Liam Bellamy and Trajan John Kukulovski of RRI Advisory, Melbourne, were appointed Joint Administrators of MSG on 10 Oct 2023.

MSG holds two mining and two exploration leases in Victoria, including the Morning Star Gold Mine. The Company determined not to formulate a proposal for MSG to execute a Deed of Company Arrangement. In the absence of a DOCA proposal, the Administrators recommended to creditors that MSG be placed into Liquidation. At a meeting of creditors on 14 Nov 2023 the motion to wind up MSG was passed. WRM has exercised its rights as senior secured creditor over the assets of MSG.

Due to the significant environmental bond increases at project, the directors had no option other than to place MSG into Voluntary Administration.

SourceSource

Deposit type

  • Vein / narrow vein
  • Hydrothermal

Summary:

The Morning Star area lies within the Woods Point – Walhalla Synclinorium structural domain of the Melbourne zone, a northwest-trending belt of tightly folded Early Devonian Walhalla Group sandy turbidites. The domain is bounded by the Enoch’s Point and Howe’s Creek Faults, both possible detachmentrelated splay structures that may have controlled the intrusion of the Woods Point Dyke Swarm and provided the conduits for gold-bearing hydrothermal fluids. The local structural zone is referred to as the Ross Creek Shear Zone (RSZ).

Most gold mineralisation in the Woods Point to Gaffney’s Creek corridor occurs as structurally-controlled quartz ladder vein systems hosted by dioritic dyke bulges. The Morning Star Gold Mine exhibits all these characteristics.

The mine exhibits narrow quartz vein deposits hosted in a diorite dyke that is 700m long by 120m wide. The quartz veins are stacked and range up to 2m thick. The dyke has been mined to a depth of 920m with the dyke open at depth below 1,000 vertical metres.

Reserves

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Mining Methods

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Comminution

Crushers and Mills

Milling equipment has not been reported.

Processing

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Production

Gold production commenced in Q3 2022.
CommodityUnits20202019
Gold oz  ....  Subscribe1,182
All production numbers are expressed as metal in doré.

Operational metrics

Metrics2022202120202019
Plant annual capacity  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe
Ore tonnes mined  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe3,149 t
Tonnes processed  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe3,373 t

Production Costs

Commodity production costs have not been reported.

Financials

Units20202019
Revenue M AUD  ....  Subscribe 2,204  
Gross profit M AUD  ....  Subscribe -2,278  
Pre-tax Income M AUD  ....  Subscribe -14,179  
After-tax Income M AUD  ....  Subscribe -14,179  
Operating Cash Flow M AUD  ....  Subscribe -2,547  

Heavy Mobile Equipment

Fleet data has not been reported.

Personnel

Mine Management

Job TitleNameProfileRef. Date
....................... Subscription required ....................... Subscription required Subscription required Dec 11, 2023
....................... Subscription required ....................... Subscription required Subscription required Dec 11, 2023

Aerial view:

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