Southern Cross

Southern Cross Operations

St Barbara's Southern Cross Operations are centred at Marvel Loch, 30km south of the town of Southern Cross and 360km east of Perth, Western Australia.  Current operations are based at the Marvel Loch Underground mine.  Southern Cross Operations produced 120,275 ounces of gold for the 2011 financial year.  Production in the 2012 financial year is expected to be 90,000 to 100,000 ounces with the operation expected to be placed on care and maintenance in August 2012.

Marvel Loch Underground

The Marvel Loch Underground mine is the core of St Barbara's Southern Cross Operations.  Gold mineralisation extends over a 1.3 km strike length and has been identified to depths of over 700 metres below surface.  The ore body comprises multiple lodes.  Those currently being mined include Sherwood and Undaunted at the North; Exhibition at the centre; and East and New at the South.  Mining methods include uphole benching and open stoping with rock fill, where necessary.  Ore production from Marvel Loch Underground mine for the 2011 financial year was 1,161,078 tonnes at an average grade of 3.2 g/t. 

Extensional work to expand reserves outside of currently mined lodes is being undertaken to include targets lateral to and down plunge of existing resources.  

The plant has been in operation for more than 15 years and has a production capacity of 2.2 Mtpa based on a conventional carbon in leach circuit.  The plant is currently running on a campaign basis as utilisation is matched to Marvel Loch Underground production.  Gold recovery rates from the plant are normally above 90%.  Development activities will wind down over the 2012 financial year.  St Barbara has secured the cash flows from Southern Cross until the cessation of operations with put and call options.

Other Mines

Currently there are no other mining operations at Southern Cross.  The company is seeking to leverage off projects with a significant amount of drilling and a track record of past production. The Frasers and Copperhead mines were drilled in the first half of 2011 to examine the potential for further mineralisation around the old workings and evaluation continues on Nevoria.

Map of Operations

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