| Mount Morgans Gold Mine | |
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Mount Morgans Gold Mine
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| Location | Laverton |
| State | Western Australia |
| Country | Australia |
| Owner | |
| Company | Range River Gold |
| Website | Range River Gold |
| Year of acquisition | 2009 |
| ASX | RNG |
| Production | |
| Financial year | 2009-10 |
| Ounces of Gold | 6,088 |
| History | |
| Opened | 2009 (reopened) |
The Mount Morgans Gold Mine is a gold mine located 37 km west-south-west of Laverton, Western Australia.
It is operated by Range River Gold, who purchased the mine from Barrick Gold in May 2009.[1] The mine, having closed in 1998, reopened in December 2009.[2]
The mine should not be confused with the Mount Morgan Gold Mine at Mount Morgan, Queensland.
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Gold was discovered at Mount Morgans in 1896 and, up until 1952, 328,000 ounces of gold at 15 g/t of were produced, mostly in underground mining at the Westralia deposit.[3] Alf Morgans, later to become Premier of Western Australia for just 32 days, was responsible for the development of the Mount Morgans mineral field.[4]
In a second activities period, from 1988 to 1997, the mine produced 917,000 ounces at 3.2 g/t, now mostly from open pit operations. Mining at Mount Morgans ceased in 1998.[3] The processing plant of the mine was later removed.
The current site, was originally owned by Plutonic Resources, a major Australian gold mining and exploration company.[5][6] Homestake Mining Company purchased Plutonic in April 1998 for more than $1.0 billion,[7] and, in turn, Homestake was acquiered by Barrick Gold at the end of 2001.[8] Barrick then sold the mine to Range River Gold in May 2009.[9]
After the purchase of the mine, Range River concentrated its efforts at the The Craic deposit, which it hopes to recover 19,000 ounces of gold at 17.7 g/t.[3] On 14 December 2009, Range River announced that mining at re-commenced at Mount Morgans at The Craic open pit. The company plans to also mine the Transvaal deposit nearby, as an underground operation. An annual production of 40,000 ounces of gold is forecast.[10] An agreement was signed with Barrick in January 2010 to purchase Mount Morgans ore and treat it at Barrick's Granny Smith Gold Mine from February 2010 onwards.[11]
Production figures for the mine:
| Year | Gold production | Grade | Cost per ounce (A$/oz) |
| 2008-09 | inactive | ||
| 2009-10 [12] | 6,088 ounces | 4.7 g/t | |
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