Eureka! Gold find turns small town’s eyesore into $30m windfall

Gold has been found in a contaminated wasteland in Tasmania’s north.

The mine sludge area in wetlands at Beaconsfield, Tasmania.

In an extraordinary eureka moment, gold worth an estimated $30m has been found in a contaminated wasteland in Tasmania’s north, turning a town’s environmental eyesore into an economic bonanza.

A swamp in Beaconsfield, the small town that became a household name in the 2006 mine rescue, has built up a slimy, red sludge deposited by water flushed from the mine as far back as the 1870s.

London-listed NQ Minerals, which last year paid just $2m for the mothballed Beaconsfield Gold Mine, decided to test the unsightly muck for gold and was “very pleasantly surprised” by the results.

Not only was there gold amid the grime, but in unexpected commercial qualities and quantities.

“We’ve done some 300 samples across the area and on average we’re getting a (gold) grade of 3.2 grams per tonne,” said NQ executive director Roger Jackson.

“The average mine in Australia is less than 1.5 grams per tonne. But we don’t have to drill and blast it, we don’t have to crush it or even grind it. It’s already fine enough to be put straight in the plant to have the gold leached out of it.”

In mining terms, it’s money for jam — and lots of it. “There should be 13,000 ounces produced, so depending on the $A gold price, it’s in excess of $30m worth of gold,” Mr Jackson said.

Suddenly, a longstanding environmental problem — a contaminated wasteland — has become a significant economic opportunity.

“What’s really extraordinary is that dozens of people over decades have looked at this (sludge) as a problem and tried to resolve it — and no one ever tested for gold.

“There are reams of paper: studies about what the material is and it’s been tested for every ­element, except gold and silver.

“We did (test for gold) and were very pleasantly surprised. We kept testing and kept coming up with good grades.

“The 3.2 (grams per tonne) is the average but there are grades as high as 10 grams.”

Revenue from exploiting this waste will fund development of mining tunnels to restart the mine proper, mothballed in 2012 because of low gold prices and the need to recapitalise to reach deeper gold deposits.

“It’s the perfect stepping stone to the main game of going underground,” Mr Jackson said.

Locals who have heard the news couldn’t be happier, with dozens of jobs to be created, flow-on benefits for local businesses, and the town’s eyesore to be restored to a natural wetlands.

“We are really excited; it’s something that over coming years will inject a lot of vibrancy into the town and give a lot of employment opportunity, not just for Beaconsfield but the region as a whole,” said Rolph Vos, general manager West Tamar Council.