The Paddington Gold Mine is a

gold mine Gold Mine may refer to: * Gold Mine (board game) *Gold Mine (Long Beach), an arena *"Gold Mine", a song by Joyner Lucas from the 2020 album ''ADHD Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder characteri ...

located 5 km south of

Broad Arrow A broad arrow, of which a pheon is a variant, is a stylised representation of a metal arrowhead, comprising a tang and two barbs meeting at a point. It is a symbol used traditionally in heraldry, most notably in England, and later by the Britis ...

, and 30 km north of

Kalgoorlie, Western Australia Kalgoorlie is a city in the Goldfields–Esperance region of Western Australia, located east-northeast of Perth at the end of the Great Eastern Highway. It is sometimes referred to as Kalgoorlie–Boulder, as the surrounding urban area include ...

. It is operated by Norton Gold Fields Limited, having acquired the mine from Barrick Gold on 25 August 2007 for A$45 million.Norton Gold Fields Limited website - Paddington Gold Mine (100%) (Paddington)
accessed: 2 October 2009

History

The mine opened in 1985, under the ownership of Pancontinental Mining, mining ore in two open pit operations, the two original open pits being active until 2002. In 1994, the processing plant was upgraded to be able to handle 3.0 million tonnes of ore per annum. AurionGold, the former Goldfields Limited, was taken over by Placer Dome Limited in January 2003. Placer Dome in turn was taken over by Barrick Gold in March 2006. In 2007, the mining tenements were enlarged through the acquisition of the Mount Pleasant and

Ora Banda Ora Banda is a townsite and locality in the Eastern Goldfields of Western Australia located north-west of Kalgoorlie. The town name is Spanish meaning "band of gold". It includes several operational mines and at the 2016 Australian census ...

properties. Shortly after, on 26 April 2007, Norton announced it had purchased the mine from Barrick Gold for A$45 million. It moved the small Kundana Plant, at the Kundana Gold Mine near Paddington and part of the sale, to its Mount Morgan Mine Project, near

Rockhampton, Queensland Rockhampton is a city in the Rockhampton Region of Central Queensland, Australia. The population of Rockhampton in June 2021 was 79,967, Estimated resident population, 30 June 2018. making it the fourth-largest city in the state outside of the ...

Underground mining Mining is the extraction of valuable minerals or other geological materials from the Earth, usually from an ore body, lode, vein, seam, reef, or placer deposit. The exploitation of these deposits for raw material is based on the economic vi ...

commenced in April 2009 with the cutting of a portal at Norton's Homestead deposit at Mount Pleasant, 18 km south-west of the Paddington mill, and is expected to deliver mill feed from December 2009 with a grade in excess of 6.0 g/t. Production performance of the mine was below plan in 2008-09, having been scheduled at 145,000 ounces and achieved only 137,000, because of shortfalls in the second half of 2008. In August 2009, Norton signed an agreement with Curtin University of Technology’s

Western Australian School of Mines Western Australian School of Mines (WASM) was founded in 1902 as the ''Kalgoorlie School of Mines'' It was a tertiary school specialising in subjects directly related to the Western Australian mining industry. Originally located in Coolgardie, ...

(WASM) to establish cooperation in education, professional development, and research and development between WASM and the Paddington Gold Mine. On 28 September 2009, two miners were seriously injured, having been pinned between the counterweight of an excavator and a wall in the plant area. Following acquisition by Chinese company

Zijin Mining Zijin Mining Group Co., Limited is a multi-national mining company headquartered in Mainland China. Background Zijin is a Shanghai Stock Exchange and Hong Kong Stock Exchange listed mining company principally engaged in the prospecting, explor ...

, Norton Gold Fields Limited was delisted from the Australian Securities Exchange in July 2017.

Production

Recent production of the mine:

References

Bibliography

External links

*
MINEDEX website: Paddington - Mt Pleasant
Database of the Department of Mines, Industry Regulation and Safety {{Active Gold Mines in Western Australia Gold mines in Western Australia Surface mines in Australia Underground mines in Australia City of Kalgoorlie–Boulder Barrick Gold