Beaconsfield Gold Mine could fire back to life under new owner
A mine which made global headlines in 2006 could fire up again now it has a new owner.
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TASMANIA’S most well-known gold mine has been sold for a bargain-basement $2 million.
NQ Minerals, which also owns the Hellyer Mine on the state’s West Coast, recently announced it had signed a staged acquisition agreement to purchase a 100 per cent interest in the historic Beaconsfield Gold Mine.
The mine made global headlines in 2006 when two miners, Brant Webb and Todd Russell, emerged alive after two weeks trapped underground.
Their colleague Larry Knight died in the rockfall.
The operation produced nearly two million ounces of gold between 1887 and when it was closed in 2012.
The sale includes the processing plant, tailings dams, mining leases and mining permits.
NQ Minerals’ chairman David Lenigas said it hoped to re-open Beaconsfield as soon as possible.
“Acquiring an established gold processing plant for a fraction of the cost to build and permit a new one, not to mention the typical lead time associated with permitting a new facility in Tasmania, is an exciting opportunity,” Mr Lenigas said.
THE DISASTER THAT UNITED BEACONSFIELD
“Recent notable successes in re-assessing new potential around historic high-grade gold mining centres has seen significant value added for investors on projects like Fosterville in Victoria and Bellevue in Western Australia.
“We believe that Beaconsfield offers a genuine opportunity for the company to develop a high-quality gold asset.”
The processing plant is expected to also be used to treat metals from Hellyer and the company’s nearby Barnes Hill nickel and cobalt mining project.
The gold price has increased by 50 per cent since the mine closed in 2012 and NQ Minerals said there was still more than 300,000 ounces of gold to be mined.
“Sizeable unmined areas remain within the existing mine envelope and the gold mineralisation is open at depth,” the company said.
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