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Australia

Ballarat Mine

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Australia

Ballarat Mine

Location: 1 km NW from Ballarat, Victoria, Australia

Address:

10 Woolshed Gully Drive, Mount Clear
Ballarat
Victoria, Australia
3350

Contacts:

Additional Resources for Suppliers & Investors

Categories

Overview

Mine TypeUnderground
StatusActive
Commodities
  • Gold
Mining Method
  • Longhole open stoping
Backfill type ... Lock
Production Start... Lock
Mine Life... Lock
SnapshotBalmaine Gold Pty Ltd was placed under voluntary administration on March 9, 2023. By July 15, the administrators, Hall Chadwick, launched a sales campaign, with Victory Minerals Pty Ltd taking over as the new operator.

In Q2 2024, gold sales from the Ballarat Mine totaled 6,164 ounces.

Legal issues emerged on June 26, 2024, when Shen Yao Holdings and its officers were prosecuted and sentenced for failing to maintain a sufficient rehabilitation bond, which is required to fund site rehabilitation in case of default. Balmaine Gold and its former officers were also sentenced on June 18, 2024, for not adjusting their rehabilitation liability. The court emphasized that such negligence is unacceptable in the mining industry.

On July 20, 2024, the Ballarat Gold Mine received approval for an open-air waste storage facility, with Tailings Storage Facility 4 securing over 10 years of production.

Owners

SourceSource
CompanyInterestOwnership
Shen Yao Holdings Ltd. Indirect
Victory Minerals Pty Ltd. (operator) Indirect
Golden Point Group (Pty) Ltd. Indirect
Shen Yao Holdings indirectly wholly-owned subsidiary, Balmaine Gold Pty Ltd has been placed under voluntary administration (“VA”) since March 2023 and Shen Yao Holdings has lost control of Balmaine following a deed of company arrangement entered into on 19 December 2023 between the Administrators and the deed proponent, which resulted in the transfer of control in Balmaine to a nominee of the deed proponent. In addition, the Shen Yao Holdings wholly-owned subsidiary, Golden Point Group Pty Ltd, together with its subsidiary Ironbark, was placed under VA since July 2023.

The operator of the Ballarat Mine, Balmaine Gold Pty Ltd, entered administration in March 2023. The new operator Victory Minerals Pty Ltd.

Contractors

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SourceSource

Deposit type

  • Orogenic
  • Vein / narrow vein

Summary:

The Ballarat goldfield is positioned in the hanging-wall of the crustal-scale north-south striking, west-dipping Williamson Creek reverse fault. Three north-trending mineralised zones are identified in the Ballarat goldfields: Ballarat East, Ballarat West (including Ballarat South) and Little Bendigo. Gold mineralisation is hosted by Ordovician turbidites of the Castlemaine Supergroup.

The Ballarat Goldmine is located in the Ballarat East goldfield and lies on the eastern limb of the Ballarat Anticline. The turbidites were folded into a series of north-south trending, tight, upright chevron-style anticlines with wavelengths ranging from 50 m to 300 m. Numerous parasitic folds occur around the hinge zones of the larger folds. The three major fold lines of the Ballarat East goldfield are the Sulieman, Scandinavian and First Chance Anticlines.

The Ballarat goldfields are divided into multiple ‘compartments’ by a series of major faults referred to as cross courses. Cross-course faults are sub-vertical, brittle faults that are un mineralised yet play an important role in the distribution of mineralisation, and gold tenors are relatively consistent within individual compartments. Cross courses typically trend northeast or northwest and have displacements ranging from centimetres to several hundreds of metres.

The Ballarat goldfield is an orogenic gold deposit. Vein mineral assemblages include several generations of quartz with chlorite, sericite, albite and carbonate minerals. Arsenopyrite and pyrite are the dominant sulphide minerals with galena, sphalerite, chalcopyrite and pyrrhotite also commonly observed. The estimated percentage of sulphide minerals in the veins is 2%. The host rocks show bleaching, carbonate aggregates, disseminated pyrite, arsenopyrite and pervasive halos of sericitic alteration around quartz veining.

Mineralogical observations that gold may occur in fractures within sulphide minerals or attached to the margins of sulphide grains indicate that gold was deposited after the sulphides. Gold occurs as native gold particles that range in size from several microns up to 30 mm.

The Ballarat Goldmine has three major productive lines of reef, located on anticlines of the same name: the Sulieman minor Line, the Scandinavian Line and the First Chance Line. A minor gold bearing line is the Oregon line to the east of current development. The major folds are continuous along the length of the goldfield. Each line of reef is divided into several compartments ranging in length from 150m to 500m along strike.

Gold mineralisation occurs as en-échelon vein arrays linked to vertically stacked shallow to steep west-dipping reverse faults that cross cut the eastern limb of the anticlines. West-dipping faults are generally narrow (< 1 m wide) and mineralisation is constrained within the fault plane. The Mako Fault Zone (MFZ) in the Llanberris Compartment is an example of a west-dipping reverse fault zone. The fault zones dip between 20o and 70o, extend up to 250m along strike (north-south), 90m down dip and ranges in thickness from 0.5m to 6m. Veining comprises a combination of massive quartz, weakly laminated quartz, brecciated quartz and stockwork veins. Later faults, offsetting early stage veining, have been observed amongst a complex zone of shearing and fault gouge development.

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

2020 production is reported for 5 quarters passed.
CommodityUnits2022202120202019201820172016
Gold oz  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe41,83035,10441,39141,516
All production numbers are expressed as metal in doré.

Operational metrics

Metrics2022202120202019201820172016
Annual processing capacity  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe600,000 t600,000 t600,000 t600,000 t
Waste  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe227,426 t
Tonnes processed  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe267,941 t260,165 t270,699 t251,000 t
Ore tonnes mined  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe273,072 t

Production Costs

Commodity202220212020201920182017
Cash costs Gold  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe
Cash costs (sold) Gold 1,313 / oz  USD 1,395 / oz  AUD 1,088 / oz  AUD
All-in sustaining costs (AISC) Gold  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe 1,578 / oz  AUD
All-in sustaining costs (sold) Gold 1,762 / oz  AUD 1,485 / oz  AUD

Financials

Units202220212020201920182017
Capital expenditures M SGD  ....  Subscribe
Revenue M SGD  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe 70.1   59.1   72.6  
Gross profit M SGD  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe 7   -5.9   6.8  
Pre-tax Income M SGD  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe 1.2   -10.6   -0.5  
After-tax Income M SGD  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe 0.3   -10.6   -0.5  
Operating Cash Flow M SGD  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe 12.5   2.4   17.3  

Heavy Mobile Equipment

Fleet data has not been reported.

Personnel

Mine Management

Job TitleNameProfileRef. Date
....................... Subscription required ....................... Subscription required Subscription required Sep 5, 2024
....................... Subscription required ....................... Subscription required Subscription required Sep 5, 2024

EmployeesContractorsTotal WorkforceYear
...... Subscription required ...... Subscription required ...... Subscription required 2021
...... Subscription required ...... Subscription required ...... Subscription required 2014

Aerial view:

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