Mount Morgans Gold Mine

Not to be confused with Mount Morgan Mine.

Mount Morgans Gold Mine
Mount Morgans Gold Mine Location in Australia 28°59′S 122°06′E / 28.98333°S 122.1°E / -28.98333; 122.1Coordinates: 28°59′S 122°06′E / 28.98333°S 122.1°E / -28.98333; 122.1
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)
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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.

History

Gold mines in the Leonora region.

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

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

Sources

• The Australian Mines Handbook: 2003-2004 Edition, Louthean Media Pty Ltd, Editor: Ross Louthean
• Western Australian Mineral and Petroleum Statistics Digest 2008 Page 34: Principal Mineral and Petroleum Producers - Gold

References

1. ^ MINEDEX website - Mount Morgans search result
2. ^ Range River raises Mount Morgan gold output forecast miningweekly.com, published: 15 September 2009, accessed: 6 January 2010
3. ^ ^{a b c} Mt Morgans flyer Range River Gold website, accessed: 6 January 2010
4. ^ Morgans, Alfred Edward (1850 - 1933) Australian Dictonary of Biography, Online edition, accessed: 6 January 2010
5. ^ PLUTONIC RESOURCES LIMITED (PLU) delisted.com.au, accessed: 1 January 2010
6. ^ Atlantic Gold NL website accessed: 1 January 2009
7. ^ Homestake Mining Company - History accessed: 1 January 2009
8. ^ MINEDEX website Plutonic search result, accessed: 5 January 2010
9. ^ Completion of acquisition of Mt Morgans project Range River Gold ASX announcement, published: 21 May 2009, accessed: 6 January 2010
10. ^ Mining commences at Mount Morgans Range River Gold website, published: 14 December 2009, accessed: 6 January 2010
11. ^ Mt Morgans - Ore Sale Terms agreed with Barrick Range River Gold ASX announcement, published: 27 January 2010, accessed: 9 February 2010
12. ^ Quarterly report June 2010 Range River Gold ASX announcement, published: 19 July 2010, accessed: 29 July 2010

External links

• MINEDEX website