| Tarmoola Gold Mine | |
|---|---|
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Tarmoola Gold Mine
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| Location | Leonora |
| State | Western Australia |
| Country | Australia |
| Owner | |
| Company | St Barbara Limited |
| Website | St Barbara website |
| Year of acquisition | March 2005 |
| ASX | SBM |
| Production | |
| Financial year | 2008-09 |
| Ounces of Gold | inactive |
| History | |
| Opened | 1990 |
| Closed | 2004 |
The Tarmoola Gold Mine is a gold mine located 29 km north-west of Leonora, Western Australia. The mine has been placed in care and maintenance since September 2004, when a pit wall failure forced its closure.[1]
It is owned by St Barbara Limited.[2] Apart from Tarmoola, St Barbara also operates the Marvel Loch Gold Mine and the Gwalia Gold Mine.[3][4]
All three mines were previously owned by the now defunct mining company Sons of Gwalia Limited.[5] Sons of Gwalia went into administration on 30 August 2004 and the company's gold mining operations were sold to St Barbara in March 2005 for A$38 Million, having been valued by the Sons of Gwalia directors at A$120 Million. While Marvel Loch was operational before and after the sale, the Gwalia mine was already placed in care and maintenance at the time of the transaction. A fourth mine, the Carosue Dam Gold Mine, ceased operation in June 2005 and has since been sold by St Barbara.[6][7][8]
Contents |
The mine, opened in May 1990,[9] was discovered and developed by Mount Edon Mines until April 1997,[10] when it was taken over by jointly by Camelot Resources and the Teck Corporation through Reachwest Pty Ltd for A$158 million.[11]
Camelot Resources was renamed Pacmin Mining in June 1998[12] and took control of all assets of the two companies in Australia.[13] Pacmin was then taken over by Sons of Gwalia in October 2001 for A$210 million,[14][15] the mine thereby becoming part of the company's Leonora operations, together with the Gwalia mine. This merger also secured the Carosue Dam mine for Sons of Gwalia.[16][17]
In February 2004, a pit wall failure caused disruptions to the mine, leading to its eventual closure in September 2004.[1]
In retrospect, the purchase of Pacmin and Tarmoola was seen as very expensive, especially in the light of gold reserve write downs and operational difficulties at the mine.[18][19]
Sons of Gwalia went into administration on 30 August 2004, following a financial collapse, with debts exceeding $800 million after suffering from falling gold reserves and hedging losses.[20] Sons of Gwalia was Australia's third-largest gold producer and also controlled more than half the world's production of tantalum.[21]
St Barbara purchased the mine from insolvent Sons of Gwalia in March 2005 but has not reopened the mine since.[7] The company placed the mine on the market in 2007, seeing little value in operating the mine because of high costs of production. St Barbara estimated that it would cost A$700 per ounce to mine at Tarmoola, at an average grade of 1.1 g/t.[22] However, the sale of Tarmoola did not eventuate.[23]
St Barbara has been reviewing the option of underground mining at Tarmoola in 2009 and processing the ore at Gwalia.[2]
Production of the mine:
| Year | Production | Grade | Cost per ounce |
| 1995-96 [11] | 58,369 ounces | ||
| 2000 [24] | 230,357 ounces | 2.27 g/t | A$287 |
| 2001 [24] | 194,540 ounces | 1.80 g/t | A$379 |
| 2002 1 [24] | 150,484 ounces | 1.41 g/t | A$375 |
| 2002-03 2 [16] | 237,036 ounces | A$470 | |
| 2003-04 2 [25] | 165,802 ounces | A$476 | |
| 2004-05 | |||
| 2005–present | inactive | ||
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