Wiluna Gold Mine

The Wiluna Gold Mine is an inactive gold mine in Western Australia near the town of Wiluna. The mine was active from 1984 till its closure in 2007. It is currently in care & maintenance and not open to visitors.

Overview

The mine was owned by the company Agincourt who was bought out in April 2007 by Oxiana Limited.Oxiana in turn sold on the Wiluna Gold Mine in July 2007, making them the shortest owner of the site by a long run. [cite web |url=http://www.oxiana.com.au/_data/docs/announcements/2007/070416_asx%20letter_close%20of%20offer.pdf|title=Agincourt takeover bid closes|author=|publisher=Oxiana Limited|accessdate= 2007-11-02|language=English]

The mine consists of several open pits, the largest being East Pit which was mined until July 2007 and three underground operations. Two of those, Happy Jack and East Lode are older workings, the third, Bulletin decline was also mined until July 2007. Bulletin and its extensions, Calais and Woodley decline are currently the sites of an underground drilling program. There is approx. 15 km of underground workings at the mine. Most of the open pits are flooded with salt water. Only one of them, the small Caledonia Pit, contains fresh water. It is home to long neck turtles and yabbies (a fresh water crustacian).

The current owner, APEX, plans to upgrade and reopen the mine by 2009. It also plans to transport ore to the Wiluna plant from its other mine sites, Gidgee Gold Mine (approx. 150 km south) and Youanmi Gold Mine (approx. 300km south). [cite web |url= http://news.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=274176| title = Apex acquires Wiluna mine for $29.5m| author = AAP| publisher = ninemsn| access date = 2007-11-01 | language = English]

Williamson pit, an open pit in the dry salt lake of Lake Way was also mined by Wiluna Gold until early 2007 but is now abandoned. The mining lease is still with Oxiana Limited who plans to mine rich uranium deposits there throu Toro Energy Limited in the foreseable future. There are other mining companies that currently carry out exploration in the Wiluna area too, notably for nickel and iron ore. There is also and older mine site approx. 25 km south of Wiluna, along the road to Leinster, Western Australia, called Wiluna South or Matilda Mine. It was operated for about 10 years until 1989 by Chevron. Apart from a couple of old pits and tailings dams there is little remaining of the old site.

One of the few historical building from the earlier days of mining is the old Mine Managers Lodge, currently a private residence. There also is some old equipment on display at the visitors car park, notable an old crusher and an old mill. The Wiluna area was extensively mined from the discovery of Gold there in 1896 till the end of World War II when mining ceased.

Just before entering Wiluna from the south, a wodden building on the right hand side is the old railway stations shed. In front of it, the railway dam can still be seen but the tracks which once went all the way to Leinster have been removed.

In 1996, P. Heydon published a very informative book on the history of Wiluna and it's gold mine, titled "Wiluna: Edge of the Desert" (ISBN 0859052168). It contains many black and white pictures from the early days up to 1996.

The mine is connected to Perth through flights out of Wiluna Airport.

Fatality on Minesite

On Friday, 1 July 2005, and employee of "Mining and Civil Australia Pty Ltd" was killed at the Williamson pit. The man was crushed while helping to jump-start a truck. [cite web |url=http://www.docep.wa.gov.au/corporate/Media/statements/2005/July/Fatality_at_Wiluna_g.html|title=Fatality at Wiluna gold mine|author=|publisher=DOCEP|date=2005-07-05|accessdate=2008-03-29|language=English] .

Mine upgrade

On 19 March 2008, "APEX" announced the raising of $62 Million (Aus) to fund the Company’s program to resume gold production at the Wiluna Gold Mine by the end of 2008. [cite web |url=http://www.apexminerals.com/reports/ASXAnnouncement-200803-ApexPlacement.pdf|title=APEX ANNOUNCES PLACEMENT TO RAISE $62 MILLION|author=Mark Ashley|publisher=APEX Minerals|accessdate=2008-03-19|language=English] .

Owners of the Wiluna Gold Mine

* 5/1984 - 1/1991 Barrack Mines
* 1/1991 - 1/1994 Asarco Gold
* 1/1994 - 12/1997 Wiluna Mines
* 12/1997 - 4/2000 Great Central Mines
* 4/2000 - 2/2002 Normandy Mining
* 2/2002 - 12/2003 Newmont Australia
* 12/2003 - 4/2007 Agincourt Resources
* 4/2007 - 7/2007 Oxiana Limited
* 7/2007 - present APEX Resources NL

External links

* [http://www.oxiana.com.au/ Oxiana Limited Website]
* [http://www.apexminerals.com/index.php APEX Resources Website]
* [http://www.wiluna.wa.gov.au/ Shire of Wiluna]
* [http://www.nru.com.au/projects/lake-way-project/ Lake Way uranium project - Maps of Wiluna and the surrounding uranium projects]

References