The Bronzewing 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 approximately 83 km north-east of

Leinster, Western Australia Leinster is a town in the northern Goldfields area of Western Australia. It is east of the Goldfields Highway in the Shire of Leonora, and northeast of the state capital, Perth. The town was established in 1976 by Agnew Mining, initially as a ...

. The mine, owned by Navigator Resources Limited, has been in

care and maintenance Care and maintenance is a term used in the mining industry to describe processes and conditions on a closed minesite where there is potential to recommence operations at a later date. During a care and maintenance phase, production is stopped but t ...

since March 2013, after its owner went into

administration Administration may refer to: Management of organizations * Management, the act of directing people towards accomplishing a goal ** Administrative Assistant, traditionally known as a Secretary, or also known as an administrative officer, admini ...

. The mine is located within the Yandal

Greenstone Belt Greenstone belts are zones of variably metamorphosed mafic to ultramafic volcanic sequences with associated sedimentary rocks that occur within Archaean and Proterozoic cratons between granite and gneiss bodies. The name comes from the gree ...

, and is owned by

Northern Star Resources Northern Star Resources is an Australian gold mining company with operations in Western Australia, Northern Territory and Alaska. History Northern Star Resources (NSR) was founded in December 2003 to search for and develop ore deposits in the ...

History

The Bronzewing deposit was discovered by

Mark Creasy Mark Gareth Creasy (born 1944) is a Western Australian mining entrepreneur. Biography Creasy arrived in Australia in the 1960s, and trained as a mining engineer. He has developed various mining projects in Western Australia and other sta ...

, and its sale earned him an entry into the

Guinness Book of Records ''Guinness World Records'', known from its inception in 1955 until 1999 as ''The Guinness Book of Records'' and in previous United States editions as ''The Guinness Book of World Records'', is a reference book published annually, listing worl ...

as the prospector receiving the richest payout, A$115 million from Great Central Mines.Minerals boom leads to Bronzewing revival
Australian Broadcasting Corporation, broadcast: 27 November 2006, accessed: 15 December 2009 The Bronzewing Gold Mine opened in 1991, then under the ownership of Great Central Mines, a company led by the ordained Rabbi

Joseph Gutnick Joseph Isaac "Diamond Joe" Gutnick (born June 1952; he, יוסף יצחק הכהן גוטניק) is an Australian businessman, mining industry entrepreneur and the former president of the Melbourne Football Club(1996-2001). He is also an ordain ...

. Great Central Mines purchased the remaining 30% of the mine it did not own in early 1995. On 20 May 1999, Bronzewing produced its 1,000,000th ounce of gold.Fourth Quarter Activities Report - Part A
GMC ASX announcement, published: 30 July 1999, accessed: 14 February 2010 GMC was taken over by

Normandy Mining Normandy Mining was an Australian mining company which predominantly mined gold. Normandy was, during much of the late 20th century, Australia's largest gold miner.

, with Bronzewing, the Jundee Gold Mine and the

Wiluna Gold Mine The Wiluna Gold Mine is an active gold mine in Western Australia near the town of Wiluna. The mine was active from 1984 until its closure in 2007 when it was put into care and maintenance, and again from late 2008 to June 2013 when the owners, ...

, in 1999 but continued trading until mid-2000. GMC acquired the Mt McClure Gold Mine, near Bronzewing, in September 1999 and integrating it into the latter. Normandy, in turn, was taken over by the

Newmont Mining Corporation 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 ...

in February 2002. From 1991 to 2004, the mine produced over 3.0 million ounces of gold from eleven open cut and three underground operations, with the last of the later having closed shortly before the sale of the mine to View Resources. View Resources purchased the mine in July 2004 from Newmont for A$9.0 million, a package that also included the McClure mining operation, 8 km west of Bronzewing. The company initially placed the mine in care and maintenance and hoped to resume production in mid-2005. It later deferred the start of production, making the final payment to Newmont in regards to the Bronzewing purchase in July 2005. In October 2006, View announced it would redevelop the plant at Bronzewing and target a mid-2007 start date for production. The company resumed mining at Bronzewing from underground and open pit sources in April 2007. On 17 May 2007, it announced its first gold pour at Bronzewing. It forecast a mine life of 4.5 years at an annual production rate of 120,000 ounces of gold, hoping to extend these figures. Mining was carried out in two open pit locations, the Success and the Central Pit, and two underground declines, Discovery and Calista. On 6 February 2008, the directors of the company announced a production short fall, with only 6,500 ounces produced instead of the expected 10,000 for January. This was blamed on a grade short fall. As an immediate action, View suspended underground mining. View Resources Limited went into administration on 8 February 2008, ending all mining activities on site. Navigator Resources announced on 2 April 2009 that it intended to purchase the Bronzewing mine for A$9.55 million plus a $6.45 million environmental bond. Navigator planned to resume mining from open pit sources in January 2010. The acquisition of Bronzewing was completed on 1 October 2009 and Navigator set the date for first gold production to April 2010. Shortly after, on 7 October, the administrators of View Resources Gold,

Ferrier Hodgson Ferrier Hodgson was a firm specialising in corporate recovery, corporate advisory, forensic accounting and forensic IT. The firm has a specialist management consulting arm called Azurium. Ferrier Hodgson was established in 1976. It became one ...

, announced that the company will eventually go into

liquidation Liquidation is the process in accounting by which a company is brought to an end in Canada, United Kingdom, United States, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, Italy, and many other countries. The assets and property of the company are redistrib ...

. Navigator carried out its first gold pour at the mine on 21 April 2010. The mine produced 11,409 ounces of gold for the financial year 2009-10, all from the final quarter of the year, with a production forecast of 101,000 ounces for the following year.Quarterly report June 2010
Navigator ASX announcement, published: 26 July 2010, accessed: 29 July 2010 Ore shortfalls caused the mine to underperform in its first full year of operation, with only 75,000 ounces processed. Navigator was forced to cut back its production projection for 2011-12 to 75,000 to 80,000 ounces and to raise additional cash through a A$32.6 million renouncable rights issue. On 28 March 2013 Navigator Resources, owner of the miner, went into administration, with an estimated debt of A$30 million. The reason for the failure of the Bronzewing project was seen in the low grades the mine produced and the high labour costs in Australia. Approximately 200 staff at the mine were laid off and mining operations were halted by the appointed administrator, Pitcher Partners. On 7 January 2014 it was announced that the mine had been sold to Metaliko Resources for A$4.82 million. The sale was scheduled to be completed by 28 February 2014. Metaliko Resources was taken over by Echo Resources in January 2017. Echo Resources announced in early 2019 that it would refurbish the Bronzewing processing plant with the aim of extracting 379,000 ounces of gold from the mine over a four year period. In December 2019,

completed the takeover of previous owner Echo Resources and added the Bronzewing mine and combined it with its Jundee Gold Mine as part of the new Yandal Production Centre.

Fatalities

The mine suffered one of the worst disasters in recent Western Australian mining history when three employees were killed in the underground operations. Troy Terrence Woodard (26), Timothy Lee Bell (21) and Shane Hamill (45) were trapped 450 metres underground when 18,000 cubic metres of sand-slurry, sludge, mud and rock broke through a storage area on 26 June 2000.Three miners trapped in West Australian gold mine
World Socialist Web Site, published 1 July 2000, accessed: 15 December 2009 In May 1998, Francis Thomas Grubb (34) was fatally crushed against a wall by the bucket of an 11-metre loader.

Production

Annual production of the mine: On 20 May 1999, Bronzewing produced its 1,000,000th ounce of gold:''The Australian Mines Handbook: 2003-2004 Edition'', page 73Quarterly Activities Report June 2011
Navigator ASX announcement, published: 29 July 2011, accessed: 29 July 2011Quarterly Activities Report June 2012
Navigator ASX announcement, published: 31 July 2012, accessed: 9 April 2013Quarterly Activities Report December 2012
Navigator ASX announcement, published: 18 January 2013, accessed: 9 April 2013

Yandal Production Centre

Production figures for the combined Yandal Production Centre, which consist of Bronzewing and Jundee Gold Mine. The

Thunderbox Gold Mine The Thunderbox Gold Mine is a gold mine 41 km south-east of Leinster, Western Australia. It was formerly owned by Norilsk Nickel, which placed it in care and maintenance in 2007, but is now owned by Northern Star Resources. Ethemology T ...

was also added to the Yandal operations in 2021 period but production figures were reported separately for 2020–21. The Bronzewing mine remained in care and maintenance:

Notes

* Production figure is for the combined Yandal Production Centre, which consists of the Bronzewing and Jundee Gold Mine. The Bronzewing mine remained in care and maintenance during the 2019 to 2021 period. The

was also added to the Yandal operations during that time period but production figures were reported separately. * Figures for January to September 2002.

References

Bibliography

External links

*
MINEDEX website: Yandal - Bronzewing
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 The ...

{{Inactive Gold Mines in Western Australia Gold mines in Western Australia Underground mines in Australia Surface mines in Australia Shire of Leonora Newmont 1991 establishments in Australia