Kanowna Belle is located within the Kalgoorlie Terrane, one of a number of elongate, broadly NNW-SSE striking structural-stratigraphic late Archaean greenstone terranes of the Eastern Goldfields of Western Australia. The Kanowna Belle gold mine is located close to the centre of the NNW-SSE trending, greenstone-dominated Boorara Domain, the eastern most subdivision of the Kalgoorlie Terrane.

The Kanowna Belle deposit can be categorised as a refractory, Archean lode-gold type deposit. The orebody is comprised of several ore shoots, including the large Lowes Shoot, and several smaller lodes including Troy, Sims, Hilder, Hangingwall and Footwall shoots controlled by sets of structures of various orientations oblique to Lowes.

Mineralisation is mainly hosted within a large porphyritic granodiorite body (Kanowna Belle Porphyry) that has intruded a sequence of sedimentary and volcaniclastic rocks. A zone of intense structural disruption (Fitzroy Shear Zone) separates the deposit into hangingwall and footwall structural domains and is the primary control on gold distribution. Gold mineralisation is locally associated with quartz-carbonate stockwork veins, breccia zones, sulphide-quartz-carbonate stringers and sheeted vein arrays. The generally tabular enveloping surface to mineralisation dips steeply to the south, has a high plunge to strike ratio and remains open at depth.

Lowes contains some 80% of known gold mineralisation and strikes ENE, dips ste ........

The Kanowna Belle gold deposit is mined by longhole stoping and underhand longhole bench stoping with paste fill methods. This mining method was selected to minimise the impact of mining induced stress on the underground operations by geotechnical driven mining sequences and a fill system integral in the mining cycle. The mining method used at Kanowna Belle underground is called longhole open stoping (LHOS). Mining of the LHOS commences with the development of drives (tunnels) on each level and the sides of these are supported by cement grouted roof bolts, mesh and shotcrete. These drives delineate the boundary of the stope. Each LHOS is 15-30m wide, up to 50m long and 120m high. Depending on size each stope may contain between 20,000 to 50,000 tonnes of ore. The Kanowna Belle gold mine has been extracted down to a depth of 1,301m below surface with a possible extension into lower E block, further development of the Troy and Sims loads located in the hangingwall, higher in the mine. The Velvet deposit sitting 500m west of the main Lowes ore body is also a substantial part of the production and open a depth. All mining operations are operated by NSMS, excluding diamond drilling which is contracted. The mining method at Kanowna is a form of modified open stoping which is sequenced and driven on a stope-by-stope basis by geotechnical considerations. The open stopes are backfilled with paste utilising tailings from the Kanowna Belle Mill. The ore is accessed on a level spa ........

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