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Australia

Hera Mine

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Overview

Mine TypeUnderground
StatusCare and Maintenance
Commodities
  • Gold
  • Silver
  • Lead
  • Zinc
  • Copper
Mining Method
  • Bench stoping
  • Longhole stoping
Backfill type ... Lock
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SnapshotHera site is located approximately 100km southeast of Cobar in central-west NSW. In March 2023, the last ore from the underground mine was hauled to the surface and processed through the plant, and Hera’s surface facilities were transitioned to care and maintenance in April 2023.

Aurelia Metals intend to leverage the established infrastructure at Hera site to process ore from nearby Federation Project.

Owners

SourceSource
CompanyInterestOwnership
Aurelia Metals Ltd. 100 % Indirect
Hera Resources Pty Ltd (operator) 100 % Direct
Hera Mine (Hera) is an underground metalliferous mine owned by Hera Resources Pty Ltd (Hera Resources), a wholly owned subsidiary of Aurelia Metals Limited (Aurelia).

Deposit type

  • Breccia pipe / Stockwork
  • Vein / narrow vein

Summary:

All known mineralisation in the area is epigenetic “Cobar” style. Deposits are structurally controlled quartz + sulphide matrix breccias grading to massive sulphide.

The deposits are located in high strain zones. Metal ratios are variable but there is a general tendency for separate Pb+Zn+Ag±Au±Cu and Cu+Ag±Au ore bodies. These are often in close association with the Pb+Zn lenses lying to the west of the Cu lenses. At Hera Zn is usually more abundant than Pb.

Formation temperatures are moderate to high. At Hera the presence of Fe-rich sphalerite, nonmagnetic pyrrhotite and cubanite indicates formation temperatures between 350°C and 400°C. Recognised at Hera are quartz + K-feldspar veins, scheelite, and minor skarn mineralogy which suggest a possible magmatic input. Deposit timing is enigmatic. The main mineralisation occurs as brittle sulphide matrix breccias with silicification grading to ductile massive sulphides that crosscut both bedding and cleavage. Recent age dating on micas and galena gives an age of ~385Ma for the Hera deposit.

The mineralisation at Hera, indicated by elevated gold, silver, lead, zinc and sulphur grades, appears to be structurally controlled and is associated with shearing, brecciation and quartz veining.

The twelve solid wireframes representing mineralised domains were treated as hard boundaries during estimation of all elements except arsenic. This means that blocks inside a particular domain were estimated using only data from inside that domain. Blocks and data that lie outside of all of the mineralised domain wireframes were treated as a single additional domain. Variogram models were produced for each of the domains with sufficient data and search ellipse orientations were defined for each domain individually.

A fault, observable in underground developments, cross cuts the deposit at the southern end of Main North and is interpreted to off-set Main South by about 25 m to the west.

The reported resources at Hera span a length of around 800 m and consist of seven en echelon volumes that dip steeply to the west-southwest. The plan width of the resource varies from 2 m to 70 m (including internal low grade zones) with individual stopes reaching up to 25 m wide. The upper limit of the reported estimates occurs at a depth of around 230 m from surface and the lower limit of the resource extends to a depth of 630 m below the surface.

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

CommodityProductUnits2023202220212020201920182017
Gold Metal in conc./ doré oz  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe58,02559,82245,679
Silver Metal in conc./ doré oz  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe145,554154,645131,430
Lead Metal in concentrate M lbs  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe152117
Zinc Metal in concentrate t  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe10,12913,03110,172
Lead / Zinc Concentrate kt  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe314132

Operational metrics

Metrics2023202220212020201920182017
Annual processing capacity  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe
Ore tonnes mined  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe464,339 t406,234 t373,795 t
Tonnes processed  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe468,358 t407,131 t368,086 t
Waste  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe298,616 t121,150 t

Production Costs

CommodityUnits2023202220212020201920182017
Credits (by-product) Gold AUD  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe
All-in sustaining costs (AISC) Gold AUD  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe 809 / oz **   430 / oz **   876 / oz **  
** Net of By-Product.

Financials

Units2023202220212020201920182017
Sustaining costs M AUD  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe 7.6   16.5   11.6  
Growth Capital M AUD 6.8   0.4  
Revenue M AUD  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe 133.9   155.8   109.3  
EBITDA M AUD  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe 61.6   86.4   48.5  

Heavy Mobile Equipment

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Personnel

Mine Management

Job TitleNamePhoneEmailProfileRef. Date
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EmployeesContractorsTotal WorkforceYear
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Aerial view:

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