The Granites, also known as the Tanami 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''
See also
* ''Gold'' (1974 film), based on the novel ''Gold Mine'' by Wilbur Smith
*Gold mining
...
in the
Tanami Desert
The Tanami Desert is a desert in northern Australia, situated in the Northern Territory and Western Australia.
It has a rocky terrain with small hills, and cacti. The Tanami was the Northern Territory's final frontier and was not fully explored b ...
of the
Northern Territory
The Northern Territory (commonly abbreviated as NT; formally the Northern Territory of Australia) is an states and territories of Australia, Australian territory in the central and central northern regions of Australia. The Northern Territory ...
of
Australia
Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...
. It has been operated by
Newmont Mining
Newmont Corporation is a gold mining company based in Greenwood Village, Colorado, United States. It is the world's largest gold mining corporation. Incorporated in 1921, it owns gold mines in Nevada, Colorado, Ontario, Quebec, Mexico, the Domin ...
since 2002. The mine is about north-west of
Alice Springs
Alice Springs ( aer, Mparntwe) is the third-largest town in the Northern Territory of Australia. Known as Stuart until 31 August 1933, the name Alice Springs was given by surveyor William Whitfield Mills after Alice, Lady Todd (''née'' Al ...
.
History
The first European person to find and recognise gold in the Tanami Desert was Alan Davidson, who arrived in the area in 1898 and continued prospecting until 1901. He took the name Tanami for the region from local
Aboriginal
Aborigine, aborigine or aboriginal may refer to:
*Aborigines (mythology), in Roman mythology
* Indigenous peoples, general term for ethnic groups who are the earliest known inhabitants of an area
*One of several groups of indigenous peoples, see ...
people who visited his camp. "On inquiry
elearned that the native name of the rockholes (from
hich the party obtained waterwas Tanami, and that they "never died," he said. Davidson showed the gold specimens to these Aboriginal people, who recognised it and described "mobs of similar stone to the east, together with a large creek containing plenty of water and fish. This they said was "two days' sleep to the south of east".
Recent history
Newmont purchased the mine in 2002.
In 2016, Newmont Mining undertook a $120 million upgrade of the mine, constructing a new decline and processing facilities, taking the mine's life to 2027.
On 25 June 2021, during the
COVID-19 pandemic in Australia
The COVID-19 pandemic in Australia is part of the ongoing worldwide pandemic of the coronavirus disease 2019 () caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (). The first confirmed case in Australia was identified on 25 Januar ...
, a worker tested positive for
COVID-19
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was COVID-19 pandemic in Hubei, identified in Wuhan, China, in December ...
sending the mine into lockdown. About 750 FIFO (fly-in/fly-out) workers onsite were affected, while 900 who had left the site recently had to go into isolation.
References
External links
* {{Webarchive, url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161015035518/http://www.newmont.com/operations-and-projects/australia-pacific/tanami-australia/overview/default.aspx , date=15 October 2016
Gold mines in the Northern Territory
Tanami Desert