Allied Gold Mining PLC was an Australian-based Pacific Rim gold producer with gold production, exploration and development projects in

Papua New Guinea Papua New Guinea (abbreviated PNG; , ; tpi, Papua Niugini; ho, Papua Niu Gini), officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea ( tpi, Independen Stet bilong Papua Niugini; ho, Independen Stet bilong Papua Niu Gini), is a country i ...

and the

Solomon Islands Solomon Islands is an island country consisting of six major islands and over 900 smaller islands in Oceania, to the east of Papua New Guinea and north-west of Vanuatu. It has a land area of , and a population of approx. 700,000. Its capit ...

. The company ceased to exist following a merger with St Barbara in 2012.

History

The company dates back to 2003 when it took an interest in the original owner of the gold mining project on Simberi Island.

Operations

Simberi, Papua New Guinea

Allied Gold operates an

open pit Open-pit mining, also known as open-cast or open-cut mining and in larger contexts mega-mining, is a surface mining technique of extracting rock or minerals from the earth from an open-air pit, sometimes known as a borrow. This form of minin ...

gold (and silver) mine on Simberi Island, the northernmost island of the Tabar Group, in the

New Ireland Province New Ireland Province, formerly New Mecklenburg (german: Neu-Mecklenburg), and Nova Hibernia, is the northeasternmost province of Papua New Guinea. Physical geography The largest island of the province is New Ireland. Also part of the province a ...

of eastern Papua New Guinea. The mine is wholly owned and operated by Allied Gold. Gold production started in February 2008. Seven gold deposits have been defined in mining lease 136 (ML 136), which covers the central and eastern portion of Simberi Island, and other prospects have been identified. As of June 2009, Allied reported that the total resources were 4.7 million ounces (Moz) gold: oxide gold resources of 1.4 Moz and sulphide gold resources of 3.3 Moz together with 10.2 Moz silver. Ore is delivered to the processing facilities on the eastern coast near Pigiput Bay by aerial conveyor. The process plant is a conventional carbon-in-leach (CIL) gold process plant capable of treating 2.2 million tonnes of ore per year. Production for the 2008 calendar year was .

Gold Ridge, Solomon Islands

In 2009, Allied Gold acquired the Australian listed Solomons Gold company and its Gold Ridge project on Guadalcanal Island in the

in 2009. A refurbishment has been completed with the first gold being poured in March 2011 and commissioning completing in June 2011. Gold Ridge is expected to produce 100,000 - 110,000 ounces during 2012.

Exploration

Allied is carrying out exploration programmes on Tabar Island and Tatau Island south of Simberi in exploration license 609 (EL 609), which covers all of the Tabar Group outside of licence ML 136. A regional exploration programme around Gold Ridge is ongoing.

References

External links

Official Website
{{Use dmy dates, date=June 2017 Gold mining companies of Australia 2012 disestablishments in Australia