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Leonora

The Gwalia mine is located near the township of Leonora in Western Australia.  The new operation continues the development of an ore body that has already produced four million ounces from open cut and underground operations.  Herbert Hoover, who later became the 31st President of the United States originally established the mine at the end of the eighteen hundreds.

Gwalia Mine

The Gwalia mine is the cornerstone of Leonora operations with 1.7 million ounces of gold in reserves at a grade of 9 gram per tonne and indicative mine life in excess of nine years.  After two years of re development, the first gold pour from the operations occurred in October 2008. 
The underground mine and associated declines are being progressively developed to allow a ramp up to full production.  Production was initially sourced from the West Lode and from December 2008 production was also sourced from the Gwalia Deeps.  Although the mine is 1000 metres below surface the underground geotechnical environment has been well with-in design parameters.  
On surface, the existing treatment plant was refurbished and will operate on a campaign basis from March 2009.  The plant has a capacity of approximately 1.2 million tonnes per year of hard rock and up to 1.8 million tonnes per year, when softer open pit material is blended.  Other new surface infrastructure includes a gas-fired power plant, a paste fill plant, a refrigeration plant to cool the underground environment and a substantially upgraded and expanded accommodation village, incorporating a number of energy efficient and environmentally friendly initiatives.  Central to the ventilation system is a new 5.5 metre ventilation shaft, which at 800 metres is the longest raise bore shaft of this diameter in Australia.

Tower Hill

Tower Hill, which is two kilometres from the Gwalia plant, has been identified as a potential open pit and/or underground opportunity with a resource of 1.4 million ounces, which includes several higher grade areas.  The addition of ore to the Gwalia mill will significantly reduce mill processing costs.  Recent exploration at Tower Hill targeted extensions to the existing high-grade reserves of 320,000 ounces @ 4.7g/t within the resource envelope.  Significant intersections at shallow depths of ~135-250 metres below surface were achieved, including 18m @ 4.2 g/t from 147m, 7.9m @ 8.2 g/t from 157m, and 6m @ 8.5 from 239m. Evaluation of scenarios involving combinations of open-pit and underground mining or dedicated underground development continue to progress.

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