Mining Intelligence and News
Australia

Mt Rawdon Operation

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Categories

Overview

Mine TypeOpen Pit
StatusActive
Commodities
  • Gold
  • Silver
Mining Method
  • Truck & Shovel / Loader
Production Start... Lock
Mine Life... Lock
SnapshotAt the Mt Rawdon operation, mining production is derived from a single open pit. Mining is scheduled until approximately the end of FY2024 at current estimates. Processing low grade stockpiles will continue until the end of FY25.

The Mt Rawdon Pumped Hydro (MRPH) Project Feasibility Study advanced. This is a unique renewable energy storage project which will transform a 25-year-old gold mine nearing the end of its life as a gold producer into a large, multi-generational, renewable infrastructure asset.
Related Asset

Owners

SourceSource
CompanyInterestOwnership
Evolution Mining Ltd. 100 % Indirect
Mt Rawdon Operations Pty Ltd. (operator) 100 % Direct
Evolution Mining (operating as Mt Rawdon Operations Pty Ltd) is the current owner and owns 100% of the Mt Rawdon Project.

Contractors

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Deposit type

  • Breccia pipe / Stockwork
  • Hydrothermal
  • Vein / narrow vein

Summary:

The Mt Rawdon gold deposit is a massive, volcaniclastic and dacite hosted, low grade gold deposit. The gold mineralisation is closely associated with fine disseminated pyrite within the host rocks as well as more discrete sulphide veinlets. The host rocks at Mt Rawdon are interpreted to be part of the Carboniferous aged, Aranbanga Volcanic Group that unconformably overlies rocks of the Curtis Island Group and is intruded by Permo-Triassic granitoids. Gold mineralisation at Mt Rawdon appears to be coincident with Triassic magmatism.

The host rocks at Mt Rawdon have been interpreted to be the product of a diatreme which intruded through the surrounding Devonian to Carboniferous, Curtis Island Group metasedimentary sequence. The host rocks are comprised of a polymict volcaniclastics, grading into monomict dacitic volcaniclastics and coherent dacite intrusions.

Gold mineralisation is predominantly hosted in pyrite, associated with zoned hydrothermal alteration, progressing from a highly pervasive inner calc-sodic altered core outwards to a sodic, then distal propylitic alteration. The general shape of the mineral deposit is a slightly elongated and flattened ellipse with the major direction plunging moderately to the southwest and extending for approximately one kilometre, the semi-major direction dipping to the west and having a width extending approximately five hundred metres, and thickness of approximately three hundred metres. Lithology is believed to have a strong control on mineralisation, with poorly mineralised coherent volcanic units flanking the deposit on the east and west and mineralisation being preferentially hosted in pumice bearing breccias and brecciated volcanics. The deposit is cross-cut by a suite of barren post-mineralisation dykes ranging from basaltic-andesitic to rhyolitic in composition, which range in thickness from less than a metre to approximately twenty metres. The deposit has not yet been closed off by drilling at depth down dip but does appear to narrow substantially.

Gold mineralisation at Mt Rawdon is associated with minor sulphides (sphalerite, chalcopyrite, bornite, arsenopyrite, pyrrhotite and galena) and takes the form of disseminated sulphides, veinlets and clots within the brecciated and altered host rocks. It is estimated that seventy percent of the sulphides occurs as clots and disseminations with an additional 30% of mineralisation being associated with a later phase of dilatant veining consisting of quartz, carbonate, hornblende, sphalerite and galena. The gold deposit has been interpreted as a south-west plunging spheroidal body, with extents that can be broadly defined by fine-grained white mica, chlorite and carbonate alteration assemblages that lies within the Eastern Dacite and Volcaniclastic units.

The Mineral Resource area encompasses the mineralisation domain (i.e. modelled 0.1 g/t Au envelope) which has a moderate southerly plunging ovoid shape with approximate dimensions of 900m (north) by 700m (east) and has been defined over a 650m vertical extent between the 260mRL and -400mRL.

Reserves

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Mining Methods

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Comminution

Crushers and Mills

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Processing

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Production

CommodityUnits202420232022202120202019201820172016
Gold oz  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe94,647105,053101,33185,002
Silver oz  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe135,794124,955162,304136,911
All production numbers are expressed as payable metal. ^ Guidance / Forecast.

Operational metrics

Metrics20232022202120202019201820172016
Annual processing capacity  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe3.5 Mt3.5 Mt3.5 Mt
Ore tonnes mined  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe3,202 kt4,444 kt5,005 kt3,307 kt
Waste  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe3,404 kt4,650 kt5.56 Mt1.9 Mt
Total tonnes mined  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe
Tonnes processed  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe3,245 kt3,241 kt3,351 kt3,421 kt

Production Costs

CommodityUnits20242023202220212020201920182017
Credits (by-product) Gold AUD  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe -30 / oz   -26 / oz   -38 / oz  
Cash costs (sold) Gold AUD  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe 1,082 /  **   680 / oz **   640 / oz **  
Cash costs Gold AUD  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe 1,073 / oz **   693 / oz **   630 / oz **  
All-in sustaining costs (sold) Gold AUD  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe 1,233 / oz **   884 / oz **   873 / oz **  
All-in costs Gold AUD  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe 1,490 / oz **   987 / oz **   1,065 / oz **  
^ Guidance / Forecast.
** Net of By-Product.

Financials

Units20242023202220212020201920182017
Capital expenditures (planned) M AUD  ....  Subscribe
Sustaining costs M AUD  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe 4.4   8.6   14.2  
Capital expenditures M AUD  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe 28.4   19.5   33.3  
Revenue M AUD  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe 167   179.4   166.5  
EBITDA M AUD  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe 53.9   93   91.6  
Operating Cash Flow M AUD  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe 60   69.2  

Heavy Mobile Equipment

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Personnel

Mine Management

Job TitleNamePhoneProfileRef. Date
....................... Subscription required ....................... Subscription required ........... Subscription required Subscription required Nov 28, 2023
....................... Subscription required ....................... Subscription required Subscription required Nov 28, 2023
....................... Subscription required ....................... Subscription required Subscription required Nov 28, 2023
....................... Subscription required ....................... Subscription required Subscription required Dec 30, 2023
....................... Subscription required ....................... Subscription required Subscription required Dec 30, 2023

EmployeesContractorsTotal WorkforceYear
...... Subscription required ...... Subscription required ...... Subscription required 2023
...... Subscription required 2022
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...... Subscription required 2019
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...... Subscription required 2017
...... Subscription required 2016

Aerial view:

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