Martha Mine is an open pit gold-silver mine, located
within the township of Waihi, 150km southeast of Auckland and is operated as a
joint venture between Normandy Mining Ltd. 67 %) as Manager and Otter Gold Mines
Ltd. (33%). The deposit was historically mined, by underground methods from 1888
to 1952, producing 5.5 moz of gold and 30 moz of silver, from 11 mt of ore. The
current operation began in 1988, producing, to June 1999 - 867,245 oz of gold
and 5.5 moz of silver from 9.5 mt of ore.
The licensed reserves were due to be mined out by late
2000. Consents were granted in December 1998 to allow the expansion of the
operation through to 2007 accessing an additional 7.5 mt of ore at 3.4 gpt Au
and 26.0 gpt Ag for 800,000 oz of gold and 6.4 moz of
silver.
The key elements of the expansion
are:
1. Pit enlargement
2. Upgraded crushing and material handling
facilities
3. Construction of a second tailings storage
facility
4. Upgraded water treatment
capacity
5. Increased operating capacity
This
paper presents an update of expansion activities to
date.