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NEWMONT BODDINGTON GOLD MINE TOUR

by PROBUS CLUB of FREMANTLE WA (Inc.) | 19 Jul 2016

On a day of beautiful weather, we travelled to Boddington on Go West Gold Mine Discovery Tour who are the sole tour contractor with driver Dave, a most knowledgeable and informative guide.

On arriving in Boddington we went to the Arts and Craft Centre where we were supplied with a much anticipated morning tea for the modest cost of $4. We then reboarded the bus for the tour of Newmont Boddington Gold Mine. The open cut mine adjacent to the town will shortly surpass the size of the Kalgoorlie Super Pit to become both the largest size mine and producing the most gold in Australia.

The land was once owned by Bunnings Timber Co but became an open cut bauxite mine. Gold was discovered in 1984 and from 1987-2001 oxide ore in clay was mined. In 2002 approval was obtained for basement rock mining and a new hard rock processing plant was required. From 2006-09 the mine was closed for the massive rebuild. During this period in 2009 Newmont Asia Pacific bought out the remaining partner to become 100%. owners. The start up of the mine was in July 2009 and by 2011 Newmont achieved the first million ounces of gold. Go West must follow stringent protocols during the time that the bus is on the mining property to ensure the absolute safety of both the passengers and the mining equipment and personnel.

 

Mostly at the 20Km per hour speed limit, Dave took us to see the complete chain of events. Firstly we could get out of the bus in fluoro vests, hard hats and safety glasses to view the pit where the haulpacks far below were being loaded with the required three shovel loads to get their 200 tonne fill. These monsters haul the ore and it is then loaded onto a 2.2Km long conveyor belt capable of carrying 10,000 tonnes per hour. We followed the production chain to see where the ore is dumped from the conveyor to go to be crushed from about football size rocks to powder. Chemicals are added and the gold (80%) and the copper (20%) are separated. The gold is further processed before being poured into bars, known as doray, which still has some impurities in it. From the mine in armoured vehicles the gold goes to the Perth Mint’s Welshpool premises where it is further refined to become 99.99% gold bars. The mine produces 850,000 ounces of gold and 30,000 tonnes of copper per year and will achieve this rate for the next 20 years.                                                     

 

From the mine we returned to Boddington for lunch at the recently renovated and renamed Little Envy Café and 30 hungry souls lined up to order. It is a tall task for a small café to serve such a number with a main meal of the day, especially as they prepare food freshly to order. However they successfully managed that challenge and within about 35 minutes all had been served. The meals were knife and fork plated ones, not microwave heated pies and pasties. 

Once more we boarded the bus and headed off to Fremantle stimulated by our outing.