Sale marks end of Gympie gold

ELDORADO Gold Mine will permanently close, bringing an end to the gold mining era in Gympie.

THE Gympie Eldorado Gold Mine ore processing plant along with other equipment is now for sale; Buka Gold is selling off all assets from the site. Picture: Craig Warhurst

NO more gold in our historic gold mining town, that's the reason owners of the Eldorado Gold Mine, Buka Gold Limited, are selling off their assets from the Monkland mine site.

Executive Director of Buka Gold Mark Gwynne said the Monkland mine was no longer feasible mainly because of the "discontinuity of the ore body".

Mining equipment including the plant, head frames and winders are for sale by Grays Mining and listed at https://www.grays.com/ for tender and auction.

Once the left over equipment has been sold Buka Gold will undertake rehabilitation of the site and eventually sell off the remaining freehold land, which is estimated to deliver between 2-3 million dollars to the company.

Mr Gwynne said it was "very sad" that the mine had to permanently close, bringing an end to the gold mining era in Gympie.

"It's sad to see it close, but all good things come to an end," he said.

Grays Mining spokesperson Chris Martin said there had already been a lot of interest in the equipment sale even though it had only been listed online for one week.

Mr Martin said with strong gold prices the equipment was a good opportunity to establish a plant quickly.

Mark Gwynne has only been the company director of Buka Gold for a "couple of months" but said he would have liked to have maintained the Monkland mine site.

"I love Gympie," he said.

However, Buka Gold has recently sold 80 per cent of their interest in the North Maryborough Project, including prospects at Mt Scotchy and Woolooga north of Gympie, for $1 million to MAuB Pty Ltd, who intend to continue exploration.

Under the agreement MAuB will assume responsibility for the majority of the Buka exploration employees and field assistants currently working on the project.

Buka Gold will now focus on projects in Western Australia.

In Buka Gold's latest quarterly report it was revealed that private contractors cleaning up the Gympie treatment plant last year recovered $400,000 of gold.

Mining ceased at the Eldorado Gold Mine late in 2008.

Originally published as Sale marks end of Gympie gold