• Data Access
  • Your Email  
  • Your Email  
Keep me signed in.
Forgot your password?
Close
  • Forgot Your Password?
  • Enter the email you signed up with and we'll email it to you.
  • Your Email  
Close
Back
MDO
Mining Data Solutions
  • Home
  • Database
  • Subscribe
  • Sign In
  • Sign In
Australia
Plutonic Mine (Plutonic Operation)

This page is not tailored to
devices with screen width under 750 px.
 Location:
293 km SE from Paraburdoo, Western Australia, Australia

  Regional Office:
Level 1, 30 Richardson Street
West Perth
Western Australia, Australia
6005
Phone  ...  Subscription required
WebsiteWeb
Additional Resources for Suppliers & Investors
Drill results over 30 g/t Au
Stay on top of recent discoveries.
Search drill results by commodity and grade.
Largest mines in the Americas
Mining and mill throughput capaciites.
Full profiles of select mines and projects.
Deepest underground mines
Shaft depth and mill throughput data.
Full profiles of select mines and projects.
Heavy mobile equipment
HME type, model, size and quantity.
Full profiles of select mines and projects.
Permitting and construction projects
Projects at the permitting or construction stage. Full profiles of select projects.
Mines with remote camps
Camp size, mine location and contacts.
Full profiles of select mines and projects.
Mines & projects in Australia
A list of country's mines and projects.
Full profiles of select mines and projects.
  • Overview
  • Owners
  • Geology
  • Mining
  • Processing
  • Production
  • Reserves
  • Costs & Financials
  • Fleet
  • Personnel
  • Filings & News

Thank you for browsing through mine profiles compiled by the Mining Data Online team.

Would you like to subcribe or schedule a Demo?
  • Name:
     
  • Company:
     
  • Position:
     
  • Phone:
  • Email:
  • Message:

Overview

StageProduction
Mine TypeUnderground
Commodities
  • Gold
Mining Method
  • Airleg stoping
  • Jumbo stripping (slashing)
  • Longhole open stoping
Production Start...


Owners

Source: p. 3,11
CompanyInterestOwnership
Superior Gold Inc. 100 % Indirect
Billabong Gold Pty. Ltd. (operator) 100 % Direct
Superior Gold Inc. is a Canadian based gold producer that owns and operates the Plutonic Gold Operations located in Western Australia.

Billabong Gold Pty. Ltd. is the wholly-owned subsidiary of Superior Gold Inc.

Contractors

Subscription required - Subscription is required.


Deposit Type

  • Metamorphic hosted
  • Breccia pipe / Stockwork
  • Vein / narrow vein
  • Replacement


Summary:

Deposit Type The Plutonic Gold Mine deposits are Archean Greenstone gold deposits. The gold mineralisation is predominantly structurally controlled occurring in a variety of stratigraphic settings, mainly associated with replacement-style lodes and stockwork veining within a wide variety of host rocks ranging from ultramafic and mafic volcanic rocks, metasediments, felsic intrusive, volcanoclastic units, and banded iron formations. In the Hermes Gold Mine and BBJV Projects there are two broad mineralisation styles (Outhwaite, 2013) referred to here as the Peak Hill Type and the Bryah Type. The Peak Hill Type gold deposits are hosted in rocks that are generally highly deformed (four or more fold events) and metamorphosed (up to amphibolite facies), generally represented by the Peak Hill Schist Formation. Mineralisation is early in the paragenesis, (syn- to post-D1 isoclinal folding) with folded mineralisation commonly observed. Previously mined examples include Peak Hill Main/Five-Ways, Mt Pleasant, Jubilee, Wilgeena and St Crispin. The Hermes deposits may be examples of mineralisation that belongs in this category. The local controls on this deposit class are difficult to identify, because of the effects of strong, postmineralisation deformation, and probable remobilisation of Au. Mineralisation Plutonic The Plutonic Gold Mine Mineral Resources mined and unmined lie with a surface area of approximately 10 km east-west by 5 km north-south. The historical Plutonic Main Pit ........


Mining Methods

  • Airleg stoping
  • Jumbo stripping (slashing)
  • Longhole open stoping


Summary:

Plutonic Underground
Plutonic Underground is a mechanised access underground mine that has been in continuous operation since 1995. Historically the mine has produced at a rate of up to 1,400 ktpa ore, although in recent years' production has stabilised at approximately 800 ktpa. The current constraint on underground production is not the infrastructure: the constraint is gathering the data to move the stopes through the planning process and into production.

The Plutonic Underground has seven active mining zones. Seven of these mining zones are well-established having been active for several years (Established Areas). The eighth zone, Baltic Extension, is a new mining zone (New Areas).

The underground mining operation covers an area of about three kilometres north-south and two kilometres east-west and currently extends over a 500 m vertical extent from approximately RL 150 m to RL 650 m. The Baltic Extension is a new mining area adjacent to existing workings and is planned to extend the depth of operation by a further 500 m vertical including Inferred Mineral Resources (total depth below surface 1,150 m). As the depth of mining increases, the ground stress also increases and can create significant mining issues. The mining studies to date have not considered stress as part of the Baltic Extension, however mining to this depth will occur gradually and the issue is not imminent or expected to materially impact successful extraction of the Mineral Re ........


Crushing and Grinding
Flow Sheet: Source

Crushing
Run of Mine (ROM) ore is trucked to the ROM pad from the underground mine. The ore is classified and stockpiled according to gold grade, arsenopyrite content, pyrrhotite content, and graphitic content so that blending can be undertaken to maintain an optimal feed to the processing plant. Oversize ore and tramp metal are sorted from stockpiles and broken on the ROM pad using a loader or excavator. Any oversize that cannot pass through the primary crusher grizzly is broken by a rock breaker mounted at the grizzly.

The PP1 crushing circuit has a nameplate capacity of 2.5 Mtpa and consists of three stages of crushing:
A 60 x 48 Jacques primary double-toggle jaw crusher,
A Symons 7’ SXHD secondary standard head cone crusher, and
Two Symons 7’ SXHD tertiary short-head cone crushers.

In addition, there are separate surge bins that are operated in closed circuit with two Nordberg 7.1 m x 2.4 m double deck vibrating banana screens. Crushed ore exits the product screen with a top size of 10 mm and is stored in the fine ore bin. The fine ore bin has a live capacity of 3,000t.

PP1 crushing circuit contains 2 x Thermo Scientific Ramsey 10-17 belt scales (CV07 and CV13) for measuring mass of circuit ore.

The now decommissioned PP2 oxide crushing circuit consists of a 48 x 42 Kemco double toggle jaw crusher with a nameplate capacity of 1.2 Mtpa, a product conveyor and a coarse ore stockpile with a live capacity of 2,200 tonnes. Crushed oxide ore was transferred to PP2 grinding mills using two variable speed belt feeders.

Grinding
Crushed ore is withdrawn from the Fine Ore Bin via two belt feeders (CV 14/15), which transfer ore onto the mill feed conveyor (CV04) that feeds into the primary grinding mill (ML01). Mill feed can also be fed via an emergency feed hopper (CV02) which is fed via the oxide coarse ore feed slots. Quicklime is discharged onto CV04 via a variable speed, manually controlled rotary valve from a 200t lime silo. Liquid lead nitrate (40% w/w) is discharged directly into CV04 head chute into the grinding circuit.

The grinding circuit comprises a Svenson 4.5m diameter by 5.63m long primary mill and two Svenson 4.2m diameter by 5.63m long secondary ball mills. The primary mill has a grate discharge and is rubber lined. Its speed is fixed at 14.6 rev/min (72 per cent of critical) and the installed power is 1,600kW (1,350kW drawn). 78mm diameter forged steel grinding media is used in the primary mill.

The secondary mills are rubber lined overflow mills run at 15.8 rev/min (75% of critical), also with 1,600 kW power (1,450 kW drawn). The grinding circuit throughput is currently operated at 165 tph with a primary mill and one ball mill configuration; this however can be increased to 230 tph by running the stand-by ball mill. 40 mm High Chromium steel grinding media is used in the secondary mills.

The primary mill discharge slurry is screened on a 6 mm aperture scalping screen and oversize is returned to the primary mill. Screen undersize reports to the ball mill discharge hopper. ML01 mill undersize and ML02/ML03 mill discharge is pumped to a hydrocyclone cluster consisting of 18 x 250 mm Cavex cyclones. Operating pressure is 130 to 150 kPa. Each cyclone contains 90 mm ceramic vortex finders and 75 mm ceramic spigots. Coarser cyclone underflow is returned to the operating secondary ball mill for further size reduction. Cyclone overflow (approximately 80% passing 75µm) discharges over a trash screen (1mm) with screen undersize reporting to the leaching circuit.


Processing

Flow Sheet: Subscription required

Summary:

- subscription is required.


Production:

CommodityUnits20212020201920172016
Gold oz  ......  Subscription required  ......  Subscription required  ......  Subscription required80,14364,857
All production numbers are expressed as metal in doré.
Subscription required - Subscription is required.

Operational Metrics:

Metrics202120202019201820172016
Ore tonnes mined  ......  Subscription required  ......  Subscription required808 kt809 kt808 kt639,742 t
Tonnes milled  ......  Subscription required  ......  Subscription required790 kt811 kt813 kt934,507 t
Subscription required - Subscription is required.

Reserves at December 31, 2021:
Underground Mineral Reserves are estimated at a stoping cut-off grade averaging 1.8 g/t Au dependent on mining area.
Mineral Resources are estimated at a cut-off grade of 1.7 g/t Au for the Plutonic Underground Gold Mine.

CategoryTonnage CommodityGradeContained Metal
Proven 2,489 kt Gold 3.8 g/t 307 koz
Probable 2,660 kt Gold 3.5 g/t 301 koz
Proven & Probable 5,148 kt Gold 3.7 g/t 608 koz
Measured 4,679 kt Gold 4.8 g/t 728 koz
Indicated 4,473 kt Gold 4.4 g/t 640 koz
Measured & Indicated 9,152 kt Gold 4.6 g/t 1,368 koz
Inferred 20,829 kt Gold 5 g/t 3,334 koz

Commodity Production Costs:

Commodity20172016
Total cash costs (sold) Gold 916 / oz†  
All-in sustaining costs (sold) Gold 1,738 / oz  AUD
All-in sustaining costs (sold) Gold 1,019 / oz†  USD
† Net of By-Product.

Financials:

Units20172016
Revenue M 103.2  USD 101.6  AUD
Operating Income M 5.7  USD
Pre-tax Income M -1.6  USD
After-tax Income M -3.1  USD
EBIT M
EBITDA M 4.4  AUD



Heavy Mobile Equipment as of December 31, 2021:
HME TypeModelSizeQuantity
ANFO Loader ....................... Subscription required ....................... Subscription required
Drill (long hole) ....................... Subscription required ....................... Subscription required
Drill (long hole) ....................... Subscription required ....................... Subscription required
Drill jumbo (two boom) ....................... Subscription required ....................... Subscription required
Drill jumbo (two boom) ....................... Subscription required ....................... Subscription required
Drill jumbo (two boom) ....................... Subscription required ....................... Subscription required
Grader ....................... Subscription required ....................... Subscription required
Loader ....................... Subscription required 6.7 t ....................... Subscription required
Loader ....................... Subscription required 14 t ....................... Subscription required
Loader ....................... Subscription required 17 t ....................... Subscription required
Loader - Tool Carrier ....................... Subscription required ....................... Subscription required
Loader - Tool Carrier ....................... Subscription required ....................... Subscription required
Loader - Tool Carrier ....................... Subscription required ....................... Subscription required
Truck (service) ....................... Subscription required ....................... Subscription required
Truck (service) ....................... Subscription required ....................... Subscription required
Truck (service) ....................... Subscription required ....................... Subscription required
Truck (underground) ....................... Subscription required 63 t ....................... Subscription required
Truck (water) ....................... Subscription required ....................... Subscription required
Subscription required - Subscription is required.

Mine Management:

Job TitleNameProfileRef. Date
....................... Subscription required ....................... Subscription required Subscription required Jun 1, 2022
....................... Subscription required ....................... Subscription required Subscription required Jun 1, 2022
....................... Subscription required ....................... Subscription required Subscription required Jun 1, 2022
Subscription required - Subscription is required.


Corporate Filings & Presentations:

DocumentYear
................................... Subscription required 2021
................................... Subscription required 2021
................................... Subscription required 2019
................................... Subscription required 2019
................................... Subscription required 2019
................................... Subscription required 2019
Fact Sheet 2018
Management Discussion & Analysis 2018
Fact Sheet 2017
Financial Review 2017
Management Discussion & Analysis 2017
Press Release 2017
Technical Report 2017
Annual Report 2016
Annual Report 2015
Fact Sheet 2015
Subscription required - Subscription is required.

Subscription required - Subscription is required.

Terms of Use Privacy Policy © 2017-2023 MDO Data Online Inc.