Overview

Mine Type	Underground
Stage	Construction
Commodities	Copper Gold Silver
Mining Method	Block caving
Production Start	...
Mine Life	...
Snapshot	Carrapateena expansion project focuses on a transition from the sublevel cave (SLC) to block cave (BC) for the lower half of the Carrapateena resource. The Carrapateena Block Cave expansion was approved in 2020 and construction of Block Cave decline commenced in 2021. The Carrapateena cave safely propagated to surface at the end of CY2022 (before the acquisition of OZ Minerals by BHP), which was an important derisking event for the mine. The bottom half of the Carrapateena orebody is being developed into a block cave, with the aim of unlocking the mine’s potential to be a multigenerational, low quartile cash cost producing operation. Progress continued in FY2024 with the development of the decline below the current sub-level cave.

Deposit type

• Breccia pipe / Stockwork
• IOCG

Summary:

The Carrapateena Project is located within the highly prospective Olympic Dam copper-gold (Cu-Au) Province. This is a metallogenic belt along the eastern margin of the Gawler Craton in South Australia, which hosts the Prominent Hill Mine, Olympic Dam mine and the Moonta-Wallaroo historic mining district. The Craton comprises variably deformed and metamorphosed sedimentary, volcanic and plutonic rock, spread from the late Archean to Mesoproterozoic, and it has been subdivided into a series of domains – the Carrapateena deposit being part of the Olympic Domain. The age of the iron oxide copper gold (IOCG) mineralisation in the Gawler Craton is uncertain, though it is interpreted in the literature to be associated with Mesoproterozoic magmatism of the Hiltaba Suite and the Gawler Range Volcanics.

The Carrapateena copper-gold mineral deposit is hosted in a brecciated granite complex, with both bornite and chalcopyrite copper mineralisation present – the bornite being a distinct higher grade zone of mineralisation.

The vast majority of copper and gold mineralisation within the deposit is hosted by hematite-dominated breccias with moderate mineralisation occurring within hematite altered granite breccias (Eastern Cu domain). Sulphides are the primary copper-bearing minerals in the Carrapateena Breccia Complex. Copper and gold mineralisation is structurally and chemically controlled, with subsequent alteration destroying mineralising structures. The most abundant sulphides are chalcopyrite, pyrite and bornite, and these constitute the majority of sulphides at Carrapateena. The less common sulphides are chalcocite, digenite and covellite, and in smaller amounts sphalerite and galena.

Gold mineralisation at the Carrapateena orebody is almost exclusively hosted by hematite altered breccias. Gold grains are usually very small (10 µm), and when seen in polished section, are often intimately associated with copper sulphides. Gold grains are commonly a combination of gold and minor silver (electrum).

Mining Methods

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Comminution

Crushers and Mills

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Processing

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Production

Operational metrics

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Personnel

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