Gold mining

Australian gold mine- Kalgoorlie

Australian gold mines

Kingsgate Consolidated Limited is an Australian gold mining and exploration company operating a modern gold mine and developing mineral resources in Thailand. Kingsgate Consolidated Limited (Kingsgate) is a highly successful gold mining and exploration company, traded on the Australian Stock Exchange (KCN: ASX). The company owns and operates the low cost Chatree gold mine in central Thailand through its wholly-owned subsidiary, Akara mining limited, using world's best practice for safe, environmental and socially responsible operations.

Famous Australian gold mines

Australia's largest open cut operating gold mine is located at Kalgoorlie, in Western Australia, about 600 km east of Perth. The vast Super Pit mine, spread over eight square kilometres, is a sight to behold. In the last 12 years three and a half billion dollars worth of gold has been pulled from a singular mine. The mine is absolutely massive, measuring four and half kilometres in length and 300 metres deep. The mines have incredible depth, going down literally hundreds of metres.

Another historic goldfield is located at Bendigo, Victoria. The Bendigo gold mines produced some 22 million ounces of gold during a century of mining and is still estimated to contain high-grade gold. Around nine billion dollars worth of gold was found in Bendigo, making it the second highest producing gold field in Australia after Kalgoorlie, and seventh richest field in the world. Deep, shaft sinking remained the pre-eminent exploration tool throughout the early productive life of the field (1851 to 1954). Throughout the mining history of the Bendigo goldfield in excess of 5,000 shafts were sunk. At least 140 shafts exceeded 300 m in depth, 67 exceeded 600 m, and 11 were over 1,000 m deep. The Bendigo goldfield represents the largest concentration of deep shafts anywhere in the world.

Australian mining industry

Today the gold industry is well established and instead of hundreds of gold miners panning for gold in riverbeds and creeks, the work is done by huge machines that sift through mountains of rock, extracting microscopic amounts of the precious metal. As little as three grams per tonne is now considered a payable amount. After coal, iron ore, and crude petroleum, gold currently ranks fourth in value of all Australia’s merchandise exports; exports of (non-monetary) gold amounted to $5 642 million in 2004-05.

The quantity of gold exported annually from Australia has been running at around 300 tonnes for the past ten years. In 2004-05, the main destinations for Australia's gold were India, Thailand, the United Kingdom, the Republic of Korea, and Singapore.

The most recent boom in gold production began in the early 1980s. There were two reasons for the increase in production at this time. One was the floating of the gold price in 1971 which led to an increase in world gold prices; the other was the application of the then new carbon-in-pulp and carbon-in-leach gold ore processing techniques.

Kingsgate's rapidly growing reserve/resource position is fuelled by exploration within a surrounding gold province which exhibits world class potential. Click here for more information on our products and services...