King of the Hills Gold Mine

The King of the Hills Gold Mine, formerly the Tarmoola Gold Mine, is located 29 km north-west of Leonora, Western Australia. The mine was placed in care and maintenance from September 2004, when a pit wall failure forced its closure. It is owned by Saracen Mineral Holdings Limited.[2]

King of the Hills Gold Mine
Location
King of the Hills Gold Mine is located in Western Australia
King of the Hills Gold Mine
King of the Hills Gold Mine
Location in Western Australia
LocationLeonora
StateWestern Australia
CountryAustralia
Coordinates28°39′58″S 121°10′01″E
Production
ProductsGold
Production9,545 ounces[1]
Financial year2021–22
History
Opened1990
Active1990–2005
2011–2016
2018–2021
2022–present
Owner
CompanyRed 5 Limited
Websitewww.red5limited.com
Year of acquisition2017

The Tarmoola mine was originally developed and opened in May 1990 by Mt Edon Gold Mines Australia NL. It is now known as King of the Hills, the original name for the area from its discovery in 1897, and is owned and operated by Saracen Mineral Holdings Limited. Saracen commenced underground mining operations at King of the Hills in July 2016,[3][4] but sold the mine to Red 5 Limited. Red 5 constructed a new processing plant at the mine and re-commenced underground mining in late March 2022.

History
Gold mines in the Kalgoorlie - Leonora region

The mine, opened in May 1990,[5] was discovered and developed by Mount Edon Mines until April 1997,[6] when it was taken over by jointly by Camelot Resources and Teck Corporation through Reachwest Pty Ltd for A$158 million.[7]

Camelot Resources was renamed Pacmin Mining in June 1998[8] and took control of all assets of the two companies in Australia.[9] Pacmin was then taken over by Sons of Gwalia in October 2001 for A$210 million,[10][11] 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.[12][13]

In February 2004, a pit wall failure caused disruptions to the mine, leading to its eventual closure in September 2004.[2]

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.[14][15]

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.[16] Sons of Gwalia was Australia's third-largest gold producer and also controlled more than half the world's production of tantalum.[17] At the point of closure, the mine had produced 1.65 million ounces of gold.[18]

St Barbara purchased the mine from insolvent Sons of Gwalia in March 2005 but did not fully reopened the mine thereafter.[19] 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.[20] However, the sale of Tarmoola did not eventuate.[21]

St Barbara explored the option of underground mining at Tarmoola in 2009 and processing the ore at Gwalia.[22] Limited amounts of ore were extracted from the mine as a satellite operation by St Barbara and subsequent owners Saracen and Red 5,[18] with St Barbara mining from 2011 to 2015 and Saracen in 2016 before suspending operations in January 2017.[23] In August 2015, St Barbara announced the sale of the mine to Saracen Mineral Holdings for A$3 million.[24]

In August 2017, Red 5 Limited purchased the Darlot-Centenary Gold Mine from Gold Fields for A$18.5 million, A$12 million of this in cash and the remainder in shares and, at the same time, also purchased the King of the Hills Gold Mine from Saracens Mineral Holdings for A$15.5 million in cash and shares.[25]

Red 5 commenced mining at King of the Hills in early 2018,[23] with ore transported to the Darlot process plant for processing until early 2021, when the company decided to preserve the mine's ore for its new plant.[26][27]

With the completion of their new processing plant at the King of the Hills mine, Red 5 plans to close down the Darlot process plant in 2022 and instead process the ore from the Darlot's underground operations at the new facility.[27] Red 5 spend A$226 million to redevelop the mine.[18]

On 31 March 2022, underground mining commenced at the mine with gold production scheduled to commence in the second quarter of the year.[28]

Production

Production of the mine:[7][29][12][30][23][26][27][1]

Year Production Grade Cost per ounce
1995-96 58,369 ounces
2000 230,357 ounces 2.27 g/t A$287
2001 194,540 ounces 1.80 g/t A$379
2002 [1] 150,484 ounces 1.41 g/t A$375
2002-03 [2] 237,036 ounces A$470
2003–04 [2] 165,802 ounces A$476
2004–05
2005–2011 inactive
2011–12
2012–13
2013–14
2014–15
2015–16
2016–17
2017–18 [3] 8,962 ounces
2018–19 [3] 40,099 ounces 3.16 g/t
2019–20 [3] 38,075 ounces 2.71 g/t
2020–2021 inactive
2021–22 9,545 ounces

Notes
  • ^[1] 2002 results for January to November only.
  • ^[2] Combined result for the Leonora operations, consisting of Gwalia and Tarmoola. The Gwalia mine closed in December 2003.
  • ^[3] Figures are for ore mined at King of the Hills and processed at Darlot. Ore stockpiled at King of the Hills not included in figure.

References
  1. "2022 Annual Report". www.asx.com.au. Red 5 Limited. Retrieved 1 March 2023.
  2. St Barbara annual report 2005 accessed: 7 February 2010
  3. Fairclough, M.C.; Brown, J.C. (1998). "Tarmoola Gold Deposit". In Berkman, Donald Alexander; Mackenzie, David H. (eds.). Geology of Australian and Papua New Guinean mineral deposits (PDF). Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy. pp. 173–178. ISBN 978 1 875776 53 5. Retrieved 8 March 2017.
  4. "Quarterly report: September 2016" (pdf). Saracen Mineral Holdings Limited. 25 October 2016. Retrieved 8 March 2017.
  5. Klaus Eckhof - Project Geologist and Business Development Manager of Mount Edon www.goldinvest.de, published: 18 January 2007, accessed: 8 February 2010
  6. Mr Tony Brennan - Managing Director of Mount Edon Gold Mines Limited deltacapital.com.au, accessed: 8 February 2010
  7. Joint Takeover Bid For Australian Mine The New York Times, published: 23 January 1997, accessed: 8 February 2010
  8. Tarmoola Joint Venture acclaimexploration.com.au, accessed: 8 February 2010
  9. Establishment of Pacific Mining Corporation Camelot ASX announcement, published: 13 March 1998, accessed: 8 February 2010
  10. PACMIN MINING CORPORATION LIMITED (PML) delisted.com.au, accessed: 8 February 2010
  11. Intention to Make Takeover Bid for PacMin Mining Corporation SGW ASX announcement, published: 23 August 2001, accessed: 8 February 2010
  12. Sons of Gwalia annual report 2003 accessed: 12 January 2010
  13. MINEDEX website - Tarmoola search result Archived 11 September 2008 at the Wayback Machine accessed: 8 February 2010
  14. ASX to probe Sons of Gwalia collapse ABC Australia, published: 5 September 2004, accessed: 8 February 2010
  15. Gwalia sweats on review metalsplace.com, published: 8 August 2004, accessed: 8 February 2010
  16. Ernst &Young agrees to $125m Sons of Gwalia settlement Archived 5 February 2011 at the Wayback Machine The West Australian, published: 4 September 2009, accessed: 4 September 2009
  17. Sons of Gwalia's gold hedging had big holes The Sydney Morning Herald, published: 4 September 2004, accessed: 4 September 2009
  18. "How the $226m King of the Hills development will make Red 5 a mid-tier gold miner in 2022". Resources Rising Stars. 9 September 2021. Retrieved 31 March 2022.
  19. St Barbara Mines Limited - Lodgement of Open Briefing Archived 15 September 2009 at the Wayback Machine published: 28 June 2005, accessed: 3 September 2009
  20. St Barbara offloads Tarmoola goldmine The Sydney Morning Herald, published: 9 November 2009, accessed: 8 February 2010
  21. St Barbara considers underground gold mine at Tarmoola The Australian, published: 14 April 2007, accessed: 8 February 2010
  22. St Barbara website - Leonora accessed: 8 February 2010
  23. "2018 Annual Report" (PDF). www.asx.com.au. Red 5 Limited. Retrieved 9 April 2022.
  24. Lucas, Jarrod (20 August 2015). "Saracen is King of the Hill". The West Australian. Retrieved 9 April 2022.
  25. Beattie, Fraser (3 August 2017). "Red 5 buys two gold mines". Business News. Retrieved 31 March 2022.
  26. "2020 Annual Report" (PDF). www.asx.com.au. Red 5 Limited. Retrieved 9 April 2022.
  27. "2021 Annual Report" (PDF). www.asx.com.au. Red 5 Limited. Retrieved 9 April 2022.
  28. Murphy, Emily (7 April 2022). "Red 5 KOTH goes back underground". Australian Mining. Retrieved 10 April 2022.
  29. The Australian Mines Handbook: 2003-2004 Edition, page 128
  30. Sons of Gwalia fourth quarter report 2004 accessed: 12 January 2010

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