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Australia

Cadia East Mine

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Summary

Mine TypeUnderground
StatusActive
Commodities
  • Gold
  • Copper
  • Silver
  • Molybdenum
Mining Method
  • Panel caving
  • Block caving
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SnapshotCadia East mine is a part of the Cadia Valley Operations and is one of the largest gold and copper deposits in the world.

Cadia East operation consists of two main panel caves (PC): PC1, which is 1,200 meters deep, and PC2, which is 1,400 meters deep. A third panel cave, PC3 sits 275 meters directly below PC2. Panel Caves 1 and 2 are currently in production, with PC2-3 and PC1-2 in development and PC1-3 and PC3-1 providing additional potential.

In November 2022, the PC 1-2 feasibility study was approved for execution. PC1-2 is the next panel cave for execution at Cadia after PC2-3, and its development is expected to recover approximately 20 percent of Cadia’s ore reserves.

Cadia Continued Operations Project
The CCOP proposes to extend existing operations beyond 2031 through using the existing infrastructure and supporting services in combination with the continuation of underground mining within both the Cadia East Underground Mine and Ridgeway Underground Mine mining areas.

Owners

SourceSource
CompanyInterestOwnershipInvestor's Info
Newmont Corp. 100 % Indirect
Cadia Holdings Pty Ltd. (operator) 100 % Direct
Newmont Overseas Holdings Pty, a wholly owned indirect subsidiary of Newmont Corporation is the owner of Cadia Holdings Pty Limited (CHPL) which in turn is the owner and operator of Cadia.

Contractors

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Deposit type

  • Vein / narrow vein
  • Skarn
  • Porphyry

Summary:

Deposit Type
The major deposits that comprise the Cadia Valley Operations are considered to be examples of alkalic porphyry gold-copper-style mineralization.

The Big Cadia and Little Cadia deposits are slightly different from the majority of the Cadia deposits in that each is a calcic iron-copper-gold skarn. However, the skarn is typical of those found in association with porphyry deposits in volcanic arcs.

Skarn systems can form in diverse settings, and are therefore typically defined by mineralogy, rather than deposit setting.

The alkaline porphyry gold-copper deposits of the Cadia district are located in the eastern Lachlan Fold Belt of New South Wales. The district comprises four porphyry deposits. Ridgeway, Cadia Extended (Cadia Quarry), Cadia Hill and Cadia East, and two related iron-skarn deposits. Big Cadia and Little Cadia.

Mineralization
Several mineralization styles are known in the district:
• Cadia Hill: intrusive wall rock and volcanic-hosted deposit associated with sheeted quartz vein mineralization;
• Cadia East: volcanic-hosted. intrusion-centered deposit with disseminated and sheeted quartz vein mineralization;
• Cadia Far East (historical, now discontinued name; part of Cadia East): volcanic- and intrusion-hosted deposit with mainly sheeted quartz vein mineralization;
• Cadia Quarry: intrusive wall rock deposit associated with sheeted quartz-calcite-sulfide veins and locally developed zones of mineralized pegmatitic breccia;
• Ridgeway: intrusion- and volcanic-hosted quartz stockwork vein mineralization:
• Big/Little Cadia. Little Cadia: iron-rich skarn mineralization.

Cadia East
The Cadia East deposit occupies a mineralized zone 2.5 km in strike length. 600 m in width and over 1,900 m in vertical extent, it is located below and to the east of the Cadia Hill deposit.

During early exploration activities, the name “Cadia East” was used to refer to disseminated near-surface mineralization that was hosted by FRV valley-fill units, while the name “Cadia Far East" referred to the sheeted vein-hosted mineralization within the underlying FRV basement. After mining commenced at Cadia East, the distinction between the two mineralization types as separate deposits was discontinued.

Geology
Mineralization is developed in the FRV, and in a series of subvertical to steeply north-dipping monzodioritic to quartz monzonitic dikes, that are termed the Cadia Far East intrusive complex (CFEIC). The syn-mineral nature of at least some of the intrusions is indicated by the presence of mineralized xenoliths within monzonite porphyry dikes that also host porphyry-style veining and alteration.

Mineralization
Mineralization at Cadia East is divided into two broad overlapping zones: an upper, copper-rich disseminated zone and a deeper gold-rich zone associated with sheeted veins. The upper zone forms a relatively small cap to the overall mineralized envelope and has a core of disseminated chalcopyrite (and rare bornite), capped by chalcopyrite-pyrite mineralization (Fox et al., 2009).

The deeper zone is localized around a core of steeply-dipping, sheeted, quartz-calcite-bornite-chalcopyrite-molybdenite veins, with the highest gold grades associated with the bornite-bearing veins. Copper and molybdenite form a mineralized blanket above and to the east of the higher-grade gold envelope.

Au:Cu values are vertically zoned. The upper, disseminated zone of volcanic-hosted mineralization typically has low Au:Cu values values (<1), whereas the envelopes of sheeted quartz catcite-sulfide veins have higher Au:Cu values (typically >2).

Reserves

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Mining Methods

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Required Heavy Mobile Equipment

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Comminution

Crushers and Mills

Milling equipment has not been reported.

Processing

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Commodity Production

Combined production numbers are reported under Cadia Valley Operation

Production Costs

Commodity production costs have not been reported.

Personnel

Mine Management

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Workforce

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