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Wednesday, 24th May 2006 (4288 views)

Australian minerals exploration company Tanami Gold has officially opened its newest gold mine today after ten years of planning. The event marks the entry of Tanami into production as well as exploration.

The Coyote gold mine is the first to open in what is likely to be a vast area of development for Tanami, who have established a land agreement with an Aboriginal population extending over a desert region of 51,000 square kilometres.

"We will continue to undertake intensive exploration to further expand our resource and reserve base…(with targets) aimed at discovering multi-million ounce orebodies," said Denis Waddell, the executive chairman of Tanami, at the opening.

Mr Waddell said that the Coyote mine was opening twelve years after the discovery of the first gold deposits on the site. He commented that this represented exploration companies overcoming the obstacles of "operating in a remote and challenging environment".

Open pit mining began at Coyote this month, with the first gold pour expected in June 2006. For the first ten months, ore will be sourced from an open pit and stage one production capacity is predicted to reach 60,000 ounces.

Stage two production, after underground operations are extended, will increase production to over 100,000 ounces annually.

 

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