The Tropicana Gold Mine is located 330 km northeast 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 ...

.Tropicana looking good as AngloGold itches to go
''

The Australian ''The Australian'', with its Saturday edition, ''The Weekend Australian'', is a broadsheet newspaper published by News Corp Australia since 14 July 1964.Bruns, Axel. "3.1. The active audience: Transforming journalism from gatekeeping to gatew ...

'', published: 28 July 2009, accessed: 3 January 2010 Since 2002, it has been jointly owned by

AngloGold Ashanti AngloGold Ashanti Limited is a global gold mining company. It was formed in 2004 by the merger of AngloGold and the Ashanti Goldfields Corporation. It is now a global gold producer with 21 operations on four continents. The company is listed ...

(70% – manager) and Regis Resources (30%). The Tropicana tenements consist of 12,500 km² of land. It is located at the junction of the

Yilgarn Craton The Yilgarn Craton is a large craton that constitutes the bulk of the Western Australian land mass. It is bounded by a mixture of sedimentary basins and Proterozoic fold and thrust belts. Zircon grains in the Jack Hills, Narryer Terrane have b ...

and the Fraser Range Mobile Belt.Gold – AIMR 2008 – Australian Mines Atlas

Geoscience Australia Geoscience Australia is an agency of the Australian Government. It carries out geoscientific research. The agency is the government's technical adviser on all aspects of geoscience, and custodian of the geographic and geological data and knowl ...

website, accessed: 3 January

History

The Tropicana deposit was discovered in 2005. The nearby Havana deposit was discovered in 2006. Mining commenced in July 2012 and first ore was sent to the crushing circuit in July 2013. The first gold was poured on 26 September 2013. The area has been seen as a new major Australian gold province, previously unexplored due to its remoteness, and dubbed the "Tropicana Gold Belt". In May 2021, Regis Resources purchased Independence Group's 30 percent stake in the ownership of the mine for A$903 million.

Project

A pre-feasibility study carried out by AngloGold Ashanti in 2007–08 showed the mine capital cost would be A$500 million to $540m and could produce up to 430,000 ounces of gold a year. The projects location at the western edge of the remote

Great Victoria Desert The Great Victoria Desert is a sparsely populated desert ecoregion and interim Australian bioregion in Western Australia and South Australia. History In 1875, British-born Australian explorer Ernest Giles became the first European to cros ...

constitutes one of the biggest barriers for the project, with 220 km of road having to be built to be able to access the future mine and a 40 megawatt power station being required to supply it with electricity.AngloGold kicks off Tropicana approvals process
''

The West Australian ''The West Australian'' is the only locally edited daily newspaper published in Perth, Western Australia. It is owned by Seven West Media (SWM), as is the state's other major newspaper, ''The Sunday Times''. It is the second-oldest continuousl ...

'', published: 29 September 2009, accessed: 3 January 2010 The project is estimated at an initial mine life of 10 years, now extended to 15, with an annual production of around 330,000 to 400,000 ounces (9000–11,000 kg) of gold and an overall production of 3.6 million ounces (102,000 kg). The decision for the mine to go ahead is expected in 2010 while mining is scheduled to begin in 2013. AngloGold Ashanti sold its 33% stake in the Boddington Gold Mine in early 2009 to

Newmont 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 ...

, a move seen by analysts as the "logical thing" in order to be able to afford the expenditure of the Tropicana development. The open pit at the mine is scheduled to be up to 6 km long, 1.5 km wide and up to 400 m deep. The development of the mine was approved by boards of the two companies on 11 December 2010. Construction is to start in June 2011, while the first gold pour was scheduled for December 2013 at the time. The cost of the project is estimated to be in excess of A$700 million.Go-ahead for Tropicana gold operation
perthnow.com.au, published: 11 December 2010, accessed: 23 December 2010

Environmental impact

The future mine site is expected to include the clearing of 3440ha of vegetation and is likely to emit up to 330,000 tonnes of

carbon dioxide Carbon dioxide (chemical formula ) is a chemical compound made up of molecules that each have one carbon atom covalently double bonded to two oxygen atoms. It is found in the gas state at room temperature. In the air, carbon dioxide is transpar ...

a year.

Production

Annual production figures of the mine:

References

Bibliography

External links

* *
MINEDEX website: Tropicana
Database of the

Department of Mines, Industry Regulation and Safety The Department of Mines, Industry Regulation and Safety is a department of the Government of Western Australia. The department was formed on 1 July 2017, out of the former Department of Mines and Petroleum and Department of Commerce. A restr ...

Tropicana JV website
{{AngloGold Ashanti Gold mines in Western Australia Surface mines in Australia Shire of Menzies AngloGold Ashanti Underground mines in Australia 2013 establishments in Australia