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Australia
Cue Gold Operations (Big Bell Mine, Comet Mine)

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 Location:
26 km NW from Cue, Western Australia, Australia

  Regional Office:
Level 6 197 St Georges Terrace
Perth
Western Australia, Australia
6000
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Fax+61-8-9462-3499
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  • Overview
  • Owners
  • Geology
  • Mining
  • Processing
  • Production
  • Reserves
  • Costs & Financials
  • Personnel
  • Filings & News

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Overview

StageProduction
Mine TypeOpen Pit & Underground
Commodities
  • Gold
Mining Method
  • Truck & Shovel / Loader
  • Sub-level caving
  • Sub-level open stoping (SLOS)
  • Bench stoping
  • Longhole stoping
  • Paste backfill
Processing
  • Gravity separation
  • Crush & Screen plant
  • Agitated tank (VAT) leaching
  • Carbon in leach (CIL)
  • Carbon adsorption-desorption-recovery (ADR)
  • Elution
  • Solvent Extraction & Electrowinning
  • Cyanide (reagent)
Mine Life10 years (as of Jan 1, 2019)
Cue Gold Operations (CGO) includ the historic mining centres of Big Bell, Cuddingwarra, DayDawn, Tuckabianna and Pinnacles. This package includes two of Australia’s most prolific past producers in the Big Bell mine (2.6 million ounces) and the Great Fingall mine (1.2 million ounces). The CGO processing hub pivots on the 1.2-1.4 Mtpa Tuckabianna processing plant.

Big Bell mine production began to rise in FY2021 with steady state operations expected to be achieved in H2 FY2022.
Latest NewsDyno Nobel fires first underground wireless blast at Big Bell     June 8, 2021


Owners

Source: p. 4
CompanyInterestOwnershipInvestor's Info
Westgold Resources Ltd. 100 % Indirect
Ownership Tree
Big Bell Gold Operations Pty Ltd, a wholly owned subsidiary of Westgold Resources Limited (Westgold), owns and operates the Cue Gold Operations (CGO).

Deposit Type

  • Metamorphic hosted
  • Porphyry


Summary:

CGO is located in the Achaean Murchison Province, a granite-greenstone terrane in the northwest of the Yilgarn Craton. Greenstone belts trending north-northeast are separated by granite-gneiss domes, with smaller granite plutons also present within or on the margins of the belts.

Mineralisation at Big Bell is hosted in the shear zone (Mine Sequence) and is associated with the post-peak metamorphic retrograde assemblages. Stibnite, native antimony and trace arsenopyrite are disseminated through the K-feldspar-rich lode schist. These are intergrown with pyrite and pyrrhotite and chalcopyrite. Mineralisation outside the typical Big Bell host rocks (KPSH), for example 1,600N and Shocker, also display a very strong W-As-Sb geochemical halo.

Numerous gold deposits occur within the Cuddingwarra Project area, the majority of which are hosted within the central mafic-ultramafic ± felsic porphyry sequence. Within this broad framework, mineralisation is shown to be spatially controlled by competency contrasts across, and flexures along, layer-parallel D2 shear zones, and is maximised when transected by corridors of northeast striking D3 faults and fractures.

The Great Fingall Dolerite hosts the majority gold mineralisation within the portion of the greenstone belt proximal to Cue (The Day Dawn Project Area). Unit AGF3 is the most brittle of all the five units and this characteristic is responsible for its role as the most favourable lithological host to gold mineralisation in the Greenstone Belt.

The Big Bell Trend is mineralised a strike length of >3,900m, a lateral extent of up +50m and a depth of over 1,500m.

Great Fingall is mineralised a strike length of >500m, a lateral extent of >600m and a depth of over 800m.

Black Swan South is mineralised a strike length of >1,700m, a lateral extent of up +75m and a depth of over 300m.


Mining Methods

  • Truck & Shovel / Loader
  • Sub-level caving
  • Sub-level open stoping (SLOS)
  • Bench stoping
  • Longhole stoping
  • Paste backfill


Summary:

The Tuckabianna plant receives underground ore from the large Big Bell underground and the smaller Comet underground mines as well ore from the Cuddingwarra open pits.

While Big Bell is the primary producer of ore to the Tuckabianna mill, the Comet underground mine has served well as a supplementary source and is expected to continue as such in FY22. After three years of dewatering, mine rehabilitation and refurbishment, Big Bell mine production began to rise in FY21 with steady state operations expected to be achieved in FY22.

A number of open pits commenced at CGO in FY2021 including a new mining hub at Cuddingwarra North and open pits at Jim’s Find and City of Chester.

Exploration and viability studies were carried out during FY2021 at the previously mined Fender open pit mine on the southern limits of the Big Bell shear, testing the economics of a transition to underground operations with this potential development scheduled to commence during FY22.

Open Pit
A majority of the open pits have a final design wall angle of 39-46 degrees. Dilution of the ore through the mining process has been accounted for within the Ore Reserve quoted inventory. Various dilution ratios are used to represent the style of mineralisation. Minimum mining widths have been accounted for in the designs, with the utilisation of 40t or 90t trucking parameters depending upon the size of the pit excavation.

Underground
In large disseminated orebodies sub level caving, sub level open stoping or single level bench stoping production methodologies are used. In narrow vein laminated quartz hosted domains a conservative narrow bench style mining method is used. In narrow flat dipping deposits a Flat Long Hole process is adopted (with fillets in the footwall for rill angle) and or jumbo stoping. Minimum mining widths have been applied in the various mining methods.


Crushing and Grinding


Processing

  • Gravity separation
  • Crush & Screen plant
  • Agitated tank (VAT) leaching
  • Carbon in leach (CIL)
  • Carbon adsorption-desorption-recovery (ADR)
  • Elution
  • Solvent Extraction & Electrowinning
  • Cyanide (reagent)

Source: Subscription required

Summary:

CGO (Cue Gold Operations) incorporates the 1.2-1.4 Mtpa Tuckabianna processing hub. The Tuckabianna processing hub treated 1,261,129 tonnes of ore, within the mid-range of the plants operating capacity and in line with expectations. The metallurgical recoveries rate for the ore blend was 88.21%.

CGO has an existing conventional CIL processing plant.

Gold extraction is achieved using two staged crushing, ball milling with gravity concentration and Carbon in Leach.

A high portion of the Reserve mill feed have extensive data when processed at other plants in the past 2-3 decades. This long history of processing demonstrates the appropriateness of the process to the styles of mineralisation considered.

No deleterious elements are considered, as a long history of processing has shown this to be not a material concern.

Recoveries & Grades:

CommodityParameter2021202020192018
Gold Recovery Rate, %  ......  Subscription required  ......  Subscription required  ......  Subscription required79.2
Gold Head Grade, g/t  ......  Subscription required  ......  Subscription required  ......  Subscription required1.71

Production:

CommodityUnits2021202020192018
Gold oz  ......  Subscription required  ......  Subscription required  ......  Subscription required8,917
All production numbers are expressed as metal in doré.
Subscription required - Subscription is required.

Operational Metrics:

Metrics2021202020192018
Ore tonnes mined  ......  Subscription required  ......  Subscription required791,482 t32,745 t
Tonnes processed  ......  Subscription required  ......  Subscription required1,169,527 t204,269 t
Annual processing capacity  ......  Subscription required  ......  Subscription required1.3 Mt1.3 Mt
Subscription required - Subscription is required.

Reserves at June 30, 2021:

CategoryTonnage CommodityGradeContained Metal
Proven 4,970 kt Gold 2.95 g/t 472 koz
Probable 12,093 kt Gold 2.39 g/t 928 koz
Proven & Probable 17,063 kt Gold 2.55 g/t 1,400 koz
Measured 6,190 kt Gold 3.27 g/t 652 koz
Indicated 23,243 kt Gold 2.5 g/t 1,871 koz
Inferred 14,519 kt Gold 2.41 g/t 1,126 koz
Total Resource 43,953 kt Gold 2.58 g/t 3,649 koz

Commodity Production Costs:

CommodityUnits2021202020192018
All-in sustaining costs (AISC) Gold AUD  ......  Subscription required†  ......  Subscription required†  ......  Subscription required† 1,623 / oz†
C1 cash costs Gold AUD  ......  Subscription required†  ......  Subscription required†  ......  Subscription required† 1,445 / oz†
All-in costs Gold AUD  ......  Subscription required†  ......  Subscription required†  ......  Subscription required† 2,525 / oz†
C2 total cash costs Gold AUD  ......  Subscription required†
† Net of By-Product.
Subscription required - Subscription is required.

Financials:

Units2021202020192018
Capital expenditures M AUD  ......  Subscription required  ......  Subscription required  ......  Subscription required50.6  
Revenue M AUD  ......  Subscription required  ......  Subscription required  ......  Subscription required14.4  
Gross profit M AUD  ......  Subscription required  ......  Subscription required  ......  Subscription required
Subscription required - Subscription is required


Heavy Mobile Equipment:

Mine Management:

Job TitleNamePhoneEmailProfileRef. Date
....................... Subscription required ....................... Subscription required ....................... Subscription required ....................... Subscription required Subscription required Jan 3, 2022
....................... Subscription required ....................... Subscription required Subscription required Jan 3, 2022
....................... Subscription required ....................... Subscription required Subscription required Jan 3, 2022
....................... Subscription required ....................... Subscription required Subscription required Jan 3, 2022
....................... Subscription required ....................... Subscription required Subscription required Jan 3, 2022
....................... Subscription required ....................... Subscription required Subscription required Jan 3, 2022
Subscription required - Subscription is required.


Corporate Filings & Presentations:

DocumentYear
................................... Subscription required 2021
................................... Subscription required 2021
................................... Subscription required 2021
................................... Subscription required 2020
................................... Subscription required 2020
................................... Subscription required 2019
................................... Subscription required 2019
................................... Subscription required 2019
................................... Subscription required 2019
................................... Subscription required 2019
Annual Report 2018
Press Release 2013
Subscription required - Subscription is required.

News:

NewsDate
Dyno Nobel fires first underground wireless blast at Big Bell June 8, 2021
Westgold Resources Ltd.: Big Bell operations suspended following accident December 16, 2020
Westgold restarts operations at Big Bell gold mine March 4, 2020
Westgold extends Sodexo contract to Big Bell mine September 20, 2019
Westgold pours first gold at Tuckabianna, completes asset sale to Northern Star. April 3, 2018

Aerial view:

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