Darlot-Centenary Gold Mine

The Darlot-Centenary Gold Mine is a gold mine located 58 km east of Leinster, Western Australia.

Darlot-Centenary
Location
Darlot-Centenary Gold Mine is located in Western Australia
Darlot-Centenary Gold Mine
Darlot-Centenary Gold Mine
Location in Western Australia
LocationLeinster
StateWestern Australia
CountryAustralia
Coordinates27°53′S 121°16′E / 27.883°S 121.267°E / -27.883; 121.267
Production
ProductsGold
Production102,574 ounces[1][1]
Financial year2022–23
History
Opened1996
Owner
CompanyRed 5 Limited
Websitewww.red5limited.com
Year of acquisition2017
Map

It is operated by Red 5 Limited since the sale from Gold Fields Australia in 2017 where, since the beginning of 2008, it was part of Gold Fields Yilgarn South operation, which consisted of Darlot, the Lawlers Gold Mine and the Granny Smith Gold Mine. The mine is located in the Yandal Greenstone Belt.[2][3]

History

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Gold mines in the Mid West region

Ore at Darlot-Centenary is mined in an underground operation at the Centenary deposit, discovered in 1996 next to the Darlot Gold Mine, which had a historical production in excess of 500,000 ounces.[4] Homestake began mining the Centenary deposit in 1998.[5]

The site, was originally owned by Sundowner Minerals, which was taken over by Forsayth group, then Plutonic Resources, a major Australian gold mining and exploration company.[6][7] Homestake Mining Company purchased Plutonic in April 1998 for more than $1.0 billion,[8] and, in turn, Homestake was acquired by Barrick Gold at the end of 2001.[9]

In October 2013, Barrick finalised the sale of their Australian Yilgarn South mines, consisting of the Granny Smith, Lawlers and Darlot-Centenary mines, to Goldfields. Barrick sold the mines as it considered them high-cost and required cash to compensate for the rising cost of its Pascua-Lama gold project. The three mines accounted for six percent of Barrick's annual gold output at the time. Goldfields purchased the mines for US$300 million, half of which had to be paid in cash while the other half could be issued in shares.[10][11]

In August 2017, Red 5 Limited purchased the Darlot mine from Gold Fields for A$18.5 million, A$12 million of this in cash and the remainder in shares. At the same time, the company also purchased the King of the Hills Gold Mine from Saracens Mineral Holdings for A$15.5 million in cash and shares.[12]

With the completion of their new processing plant at the King of the Hills Gold Mine, Red 5 will close down the Darlot process plant in 2022 and instead process the ore from the mine's underground operations at the new facility.[13]

Production

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Annual production of the mine:

Darlot

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Production figures as a stand-alone operation:[14][15][16][17][18]

Year Production Grade Grade Cost per ounce
2000 127,100 ounces 5.9 g/t A$193
2001 125,000 ounces 5.7 g/t A$325
2002 145,443 ounces US$168
2003 154,977 ounces US$164
2004 140,235 ounces US$210
2005 135,000 ounces 0.164 oz/t 5.3 g/t US$325
2006 137,000 ounces 0.170 oz/t 5.4 g/t US$378
2007 120,000 ounces 0.156 oz/t 5.0 g/t US$508

Yilgarn South

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Production figures for the Yilgarn South operation, consisting of Darlot, Granny Smith and Lawlers:[19]

Year Production Grade Grade Cost per ounce
2007 410,000 ounces 0.117 oz/ton 3.7 g/t US$486
2008 325,000 ounces 0.125 oz/ton 4.0 g/t US$749
2009 352,000 ounces US$685
2010
2011
2012
2013

Darlot

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Production figures as a stand-alone operation:[20][13][21][1]

Year Production Grade Cost per ounce
2014
2015
2016
2017
2017–18
2018–19 70,081 ounces 4.43 g/t
2019–20 63,921 ounces 3.46 g/t
2020–21 76,104 ounces 2.63 g/t
2021–22 57,362 ounces 2.0 g/t
2022–23 102,574 ounces[1] 1.53 g/t A$1,837

Notes

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  • ^[1] Combined production figure for King of the Hills and Darlot

References

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  1. ^ a b "2023 Annual Report" (PDF). www.red5limited.com. Red 5 Limited. Retrieved 26 February 2024.
  2. ^ Australia Pacific Archived 2010-01-04 at the Wayback Machine Barrick website, accessed: 1 January 2010
  3. ^ Barrick Gold on the move Archived 2008-08-07 at the Wayback Machine miningaustralia.com.au, published: 28 March 2008, accessed: 1 January 2010
  4. ^ Homestake Mining Co/DE · DEFA14A accessed: 1 January 2009
  5. ^ On the Use of Mechanistic Blast-Outcome Measurement and Modelling[permanent dead link] Dyno Nobel, accessed: 1 January 2009
  6. ^ PLUTONIC RESOURCES LIMITED (PLU) delisted.com.au, accessed: 1 January 2009
  7. ^ Atlantic Gold NL website Archived 2009-12-12 at the Wayback Machine accessed: 1 January 2009
  8. ^ Homestake Mining Company - History accessed: 1 January 2009
  9. ^ MINEDEX website Archived September 11, 2008, at the Wayback Machine Darlot search result, accessed: 1 January 2010
  10. ^ Heber, Alex (2 October 2013). "Barrick finalises sale of three Australian gold mines". Australian Mining. Retrieved 31 March 2022.
  11. ^ Lakmidas, Sherilee (22 August 2013). "Barrick to sell three Australian mines to Gold Fields". Reuters. Retrieved 31 March 2022.
  12. ^ Beattie, Fraser (3 August 2017). "Red 5 buys two gold mines". Business News. Retrieved 31 March 2022.
  13. ^ a b "2021 Annual Report" (PDF). clients.weblink.com.au. Red 5 Limited. Retrieved 9 April 2022.
  14. ^ The Australian Mines Handbook: 2003-2004 Edition, page 80
  15. ^ 2003 Fourth Quarter Report Archived 2010-11-20 at the Wayback Machine accessed: 1 January 2010
  16. ^ 2004 Fourth Quarter Report Archived 2010-10-28 at the Wayback Machine accessed: 1 January 2010
  17. ^ Fourth Quarter & Year-End Mine Statistics 2006 Archived 2010-09-22 at the Wayback Machine accessed: 1 January 2010
  18. ^ Fourth Quarter & Year-End Mine Statistics 2007 Archived 2010-09-22 at the Wayback Machine accessed: 1 January 2010
  19. ^ Fourth Quarter & Year-End Mine Statistics 2008[permanent dead link] accessed: 1 January 2010
  20. ^ "2020 Annual Report" (PDF). clients.weblink.com.au. Red 5 Limited. Retrieved 9 April 2022.
  21. ^ "2022 Annual Report". www.asx.com.au. Red 5 Limited. Retrieved 1 March 2023.

Bibliography

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  • Louthean, Ross (ed.). The Australian Mines Handbook: 2003-2004 Edition. Louthean Media Pty Ltd.
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