Australian gold mining firm Pantoro and its joint venture partner, Tulla Resources, have poured the first gold at the Norseman Gold Project in the Eastern Goldfields of Western Australia.
The Norseman Gold Project is made from 150 near-contiguous mining tenements and produced more than 5.5 million ounces of gold between 1935 and 2014.
It is located around 725km east of Perth, 200km south of Kalgoorlie and 200km north of Esperance.
Operations at the mine are restarting with production from Scotia Mining Centre open pits and the OK Underground Mine.
According to estimates, the Norseman Gold Project has a mineral resource of 35t at 3.8g/t of gold for 4.24oz and with an ore reserve of 602,000oz.
Pantoro managing director Paul Cmrlec said: “We are very pleased to confirm our first gold production at Norseman, which represents the culmination of approximately three years of hard work.
“Norseman has been taken from a dormant site with no Ore Reserves or usable processing facility to full operational status.
“There have been some unexpected delays resulting from minor but frustrating equipment start up and control programming issues during commissioning, however we are confident that all of those issues have now been resolved and the plant is operating well.
“We thank all of our staff and contractors for their dedication to achieving this outcome during the past three years, along with our joint venture partner, Tulla Resources.”
The project’s first phase involves a centralised processing facility and a combination of open pit and underground mining, which will produce around 108,000oz of gold a year.
This phase is expected to have an initial operational lifespan of seven years.
Pantoro manages the unincorporated 50-50 joint venture with Tulla Resources and is responsible for defining and implementing work programmes at the mine.
