The Stawell Gold Mine (SGM) is a gold mine located in the town of

Stawell, Victoria Stawell (pronounced /stɔːl/, "Stawl"), is an Australian town in the Wimmera region of Victoria west-north-west of the state capital, Melbourne. Located within the Shire of Northern Grampians local government area, it is a seat of local gover ...

. The current site was established in 1981, however mining has occurred on and around the site since the town was established in the mid 19th century. The mine reaches depths of up to 1.6 Kilometers (0.99 Miles). For a long time, the Stawell operations were closely related with those at the

Fosterville Gold Mine Fosterville Gold Mine is a gold mine east of Bendigo in the Australian state of Victoria. As of 2022, it was the largest gold mine in Victoria. The current mine was established by Newmarket Gold. Newmarket was taken over by Kirkland Lake Gold i ...

outside Bendigo, however this changed when Arete Capital Partners purchased Stawell, but left Fosterville in the hands of

Kirkland Lake Gold Kirkland Lake Gold Inc. was a Canadian gold mining company, based in Toronto, that owned and operated several gold mines in Canada and Australia. History The company was founded in 1988 as Goldpac Investments, and then operated as Brimstone Gold ...

(Now Agnico Eagle Mines Ltd.).

History

Crocodile Gold obtained the mine in 2012. At a stage under ownership of Croc Gold, the mine was planned to transition to an

open cut 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 mining ...

style of mine, however environmental agencies restricted this from happening, as it would have involved inverting Stawell's big hill, a local landmark The mine transitioned into the hands of Newmarket Gold Inc. in July 2015, after Crocodile Gold Corp. and it's assets were absorbed into the company. In 2016, under the ownership of Newmarket Gold's successor, Kirkland Lake Gold, the mine ceased underground mining, laying off around 150 staff, leaving the mine in a limbo state In 2017, the Arete Capital partners obtained a controlling share in the company, going on to examine the path the mine would take in the future to maximise production, with restoring and servicing all the mines production assets, the mine would go on to reopen fully in early 2019, with the first gold pour since the closure occurring that February. In 2019, construction on the Stawell Underground Physics Laboratory (SUPL), commenced 1 km below surface level inside the mine, the facility opened in August 2022.

References

{{Mines in Victoria Gold mines in Australia Stawell, Victoria