Mining Intelligence and News
Australia

Norseman Mine

Click for more information

Categories

Overview

Mine TypeOpen Pit & Underground
StatusActive
Commodities
  • Gold
Mining Method
  • Truck & Shovel / Loader
  • Longhole open stoping
Production Start... Lock
Mine Life... Lock
SnapshotNorseman Mine comprises three mines, the OK Underground Mine, the Scotia Open Pit and the Green Lantern Open Pit and processing facility.

Construction at Norseman was completed during the first half of the year, and the new processing plant has been in operation since November 2022.

Underground operations at the Scotia open pit within the Norseman gold project are expected to commence early in the June 2024 quarter, about four months earlier than previously planned, and current Scotia open pit works will be completed during the December 2024 quarter.

Owners

SourceSource
CompanyInterestOwnership
Pantoro Ltd. 100 % Indirect
Pantoro Limited has a 100% interest in the Norseman Project.

On 13 February 2023, Pantoro announced an agreed merger with Tulla Resources Plc, the then 50% partner at Norseman. The merger was completed in late June 2023, with Tulla Shareholders receiving Pantoro shares as consideration.

Contractors

Lock

- subscription is required.

Deposit type

  • Vein / narrow vein

Summary:

The project area lies at the southern extent of the Norseman - Wiluna Greenstone Belt of the Eastern Goldfields Province of the Yilgarn Block, Western Australia. The regional geology of the Norseman area has been subdivided into four formations being the Penneshaw Formation, Noganyer Formation, Woolyeenyer Formation and the Mt Kirk Formation.

The oldest unit is the Penneshaw Formation which has been dated at 2938±10 Ma (U-Pb zircon, (Hill et al., 1992). The western part of this unit is dominated by amphibolite with minor sediment and felsic rocks, whereas the eastern part comprises intercalated amphibolite and highly deformed felsic rocks.

The overlying Noganyer Formation consists of sediment iron formation (jaspilite), siltstone and sandstone, and minor carbonaceous shale.

Overlying the Noganyer Formation with a conformable or gently unconformable contact is the Woolyeenyer Formation. The Woolyeenyer Formation is dominated by mafic volcanic rocks with minor conformable ultramafic units and sediment bands. These rocks are intruded by mafic dykes with a dominant northeast to northwest trend that are interpreted to be syn-volcanic. The Woolyeenyer Formation is regarded as unconformably overlain by sedimentary and felsicvolcanic to volcaniclastic rocks of the Mt Kirk Formation that have been intruded by thick, differentiated mafic sills. The contact between these units is marked by the regionally extensive Abbottshall Chert comprising silicified banded and fine-grained sediment.

Intrusive rocks in the Norseman region include the Buldania granite, which intrudes the Penneshaw Formation; the Pioneer Granite and similar poorly exposed domal granites that intrude the sequence along the western margin of the greenstone belt; felsic porphyry to granitoid dykes intrude all units and predate mineralisation, and Proterozoic mafic dykes that occupy a Yilgarn-wide set of linear brittle fractures.

All the Norseman reefs are typical Archean lode systems and the orebodies are almost completely structurally controlled. They all share common features which indicates their genesis:

1.Most of the high grade ore zones occur where veins intersect ‘gabbro’ intrusions, and specific oriented contacts are particularly favourable. This is most likely a result of competency contrasts which allow preferential propagation of cracks and other openings within the coarser grained rocks, and the amount of veining is controlled by the orientation of the contact relative to stress directions.

2. Zones where NNE- and west-dipping felsic, dacitic porphyries are intersected by the reefs tend to be zones of intense structural complexity and gold grades are even more variable than usual. In some reefs these can be zones of high grades, and in others, low grades. This reflects the geometry relative to the local direction of maximum compression, and therefore whether the structures are tight or open.

3. Most reefs have only very narrow (a few metres at most) alteration selvages. In some cases, these selvages host high gold grades but in all cases the grade drops off very quickly away from the quartz vein. The northern deposits usually have wider alteration haloes caused by more reaction of ore fluids with host rocks (Archer and Turner, 1998)

Reserves

Lock

- subscription is required.

Mining Methods

Lock

- subscription is required.

Comminution

Crushers and Mills

Lock

- subscription is required.

Processing

Lock

- subscription is required.

Production

The processing plant had completed commissioning in October 2022 and the Norseman operation moved into the production phase from November 2022.
CommodityUnits20242023
Gold oz  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe
All production numbers are expressed as metal in doré. ^ Guidance / Forecast.

Operational metrics

Metrics2023
Annual processing capacity  ....  Subscribe
Ore tonnes mined  ....  Subscribe
Waste OP  ....  Subscribe
Waste UG  ....  Subscribe
Tonnes processed  ....  Subscribe

Production Costs

CommodityUnits2024
All-in sustaining costs (AISC) Gold AUD  ....  Subscribe
^ Guidance / Forecast.

Financials

Units2023
Capital expenditures M AUD  ....  Subscribe
Revenue M AUD  ....  Subscribe
After-tax Income M AUD  ....  Subscribe

Heavy Mobile Equipment

Lock

- subscription is required.

Personnel

Mine Management

Job TitleNameProfileRef. Date
....................... Subscription required ....................... Subscription required Subscription required Dec 1, 2023
....................... Subscription required ....................... Subscription required Subscription required Dec 1, 2023
....................... Subscription required ....................... Subscription required Subscription required Dec 1, 2023
....................... Subscription required ....................... Subscription required Subscription required Dec 1, 2023
....................... Subscription required ....................... Subscription required Subscription required Dec 1, 2023
....................... Subscription required ....................... Subscription required Subscription required Dec 1, 2023
....................... Subscription required ....................... Subscription required Subscription required Dec 1, 2023
....................... Subscription required ....................... Subscription required Subscription required Dec 1, 2023

Aerial view:

Lock

- subscription is required.