Mindat Logo

Boddington Au Mine, Boddington, Boddington Shire, Western Australia, Australia

Copper
Boddington Au Mine, Boddington, Boddington Shire, Western Australia, Australia

Photo: R Staley 2003
Latitude: 32°44'S
Longitude: 116°22'E
An openpit gold mine located 130 km SE of Perth, in the northeastern jarrah forest, 12 km from the town of Boddington. The mine is a joint venture owned by Newmont Mining Corporation and AngloGold Ashanti.
Production ceased in 2001; new production planned for 2008.




A 1979 survey identified an anomaly in the Saddleback Greenstone Belt. A large open cut operation commenced in 1987, and ceased in 2001, after the known oxide ore resource had been processed. The mine was jointly owned by Normandy Mining, Acacia Resources, and Newcrest Mining. At the time it was the largest gold operation in Australia.

After an extended period the mine was acquired by Newmont Mining, who identified a gold bedrock resource to the north of the original pit. Two pits were opened in 2010, and again forms Australia's largest gold mine (2012). It has estimated reserves of 20 million ounces of gold, and copper production of 30 000 tonnes per year. The estimated life of the mine is twenty years.

The Saddleback Greenstone Belt is a fault bounded sliver of Archaean volcanic and shallow level intrusive rocks, surrounded by granitic and gneissic rocks. The main zone of gold mineralisation occurs reasonably continuously over a strike length of about 5 kilometres long and 1 kilometre wide. This mineralisation forms a semi continuous blanket within the upper iron rich laterite, with more eratic gold distribution in the lower zones. The basement rocks below the oxide zone has gold mineralisation with predominantly andesitic volcanics and diorite dykes. In the primary ore gold is present in millimetre to centimetre scale veinlets in quartz epidote/clinozoisite actinolite.

A small number of high quality, non gold specimens were recovered during the early days of exploration by enlightened geologist Roger Staley. These were donated to the Brisbane Mineral Museum, who off-loaded some spare specimens onto the collectors market. Copper specimens are usually free of matrix and cleaned of patina. The southern pit the specimens came from is now back-filled with the overlying bauxite ore, and rehabilitated.

During the early stages of the original mining period, white quartz with visible veins of gold were found in one section. Three specimens were studied by the Western Australian Chemical Laboratories in 1993. On one specimen the new species Saddlebacktite was found in association with the gold.

Mineral List

Actinolite
Aleksite
Altaite
Chalcopyrite
'Chlorite Group'
Copper
Cuprite
Galena
Gold
Malachite
Molybdenite
Muscovite
Pyrite
Pyrrhotite
Quartz
Saddlebackite (TL)
Silver
Tsumoite


18 entries listed. 17 valid minerals. 1 type locality (valid mineral).

The above list contains all mineral locality references listed on mindat.org. This does not claim to be a complete list. If you know of more minerals from this site, please register so you can add to our database. This locality information is for reference purposes only. You should never attempt to visit any sites listed in mindat.org without first ensuring that you have the permission of the land and/or mineral rights holders for access and that you are aware of all safety precautions necessary.

References

- Australian Journal of Mineralogy (1997): 3: 119-124.

- http://www.newmont.com/en/pdf/nowandbeyond/NB2002-BGM.pdf [Link Broken? May 2013]
- http://www.bgm.com.au/one/index.asp [Link Broken? May 2013]

This page is currently not sponsored. To sponsor this page click here.


Mineral and/or Locality
Search Google
 
Copyright © Jolyon Ralph and Ida Chau 1993-2013. Site Map. Locality, mineral & photograph data are the copyright of the individuals who submitted them. Further information contact the Site hosted & developed by Jolyon Ralph. Mindat.org is an online information resource dedicated to providing free mineralogical information to all. Mindat relies on the contributions of hundreds of members and supporters. Mindat does not offer minerals for sale. If you would like to add information to improve the quality of our database, then click here to register.
Current server date and time: 5th May 2013 19:39:33
Mineral and Locality Search
Mineral:
and/or Locality:
Options
Fade toolbar when not in focusFix toolbar to bottom of page
Hide Social Media Links
Slideshow frame delay seconds