THE historic Challenger Mine in Adelong has moved one step closer to production with the completion of maintenance and repair work at the processing plant and mine site.
Historically one of Australia’s oldest and most productive gold mining locations, mining is reported to have commenced in Adelong in 1852, just after the official start of Australia’s gold in 1851.
Throughout the areas time as a gold field, about 21,234kg of gold came out of the ground in the region.
Mining stopped at the Challenger Mine in 1904 due to mining costs exceeding gold value, and the site has since been through various hands.
With the gold value having recovered over the past five decades, current operators Great Divide Mining (GDM) are now gearing up to return the ‘brown hill site’ (which refers to previously operating mines) to production.
GDM CEO Justin Haines said the next step is to restart the processing plant and get ready for the first pour.
“It’s all here, it just needs to be brought back to life,” he said.
“GDM have invested over $300,000 completing maintenance and repair work at the Challenger processing plant and mine site.
“We’ve restarted, and test run each piece of equipment in the processing circuit.
“Next step then is to get it all operating together.
“A successful operating mine requires a carefully choreographed, complete, series of integrated and sequential processes, which when done right, result in the production of gold … the profitable production of gold.”
A representative from GDM said the site currently contains close to a year’s supply of mined ore sitting on the surface, dug up and not processed.
“Our initial production through the processing plant will be that ore while the mine is prepared,” they said.
“We estimate we can run the plant for up to a year just with the material on the surface, while we plan what to do with the mine itself going forward.”
In addition to its mining efforts, GDM is striving to mitigate environmental impact, and is currently working on the carbon sequestration and environmental side of the operation.
Mr Haines said the processing plant will use recycled water-based gold extraction.
While extracting gold with recycled water, the only waste product is clean industrial sand.
“We won’t be using any toxic chemics to extract the gold – a big win for the Adelong community and the environment,” he said.
“We’ve also given the whole site a bit of a ‘spit and polish’ as well – a fresh coat of paint, re-graded the roads and drains, a general tidy-up, and even mowed the grass.”
