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South Kalgoorlie Operations (SKO) - New Celebration, Hampton Boulder, Jubilee, HBJ, Mutooroo, Villers Bretonneux, Golden Hope |
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Western Australia, WA, Australia |
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Au
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Super Porphyry Cu and Au
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IOCG Deposits - 70 papers
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All papers now Open Access.
Available as Full Text for direct download or on request. |
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The New Celebration gold mine complex is located 35 km SE of Kalgoorlie and 15 km north of Kambalda in Western Australia. It lies within the Kalgoorlie Terrane of the Eastern Goldfields Superterrane, in the Yilgarn Craton (#Location: 31° 01'S, 121° 36'E).
For details of the regional tectonic, geologic and metallogenic setting, see the Kalgoorlie Terrane sections on the Tectonics and Geology, and Mineralisation segments of the Yilgarn Craton - Geology, Structure and Mineralisation record.
The deposits of the New Celebration - Jubilee line extend over a strike length of 4 km and lie within the Kalgoorlie-St Ives Greenstone Belt in a sequence very similar to that at Kalgoorlie. Gold at New Celebration occurs in all stratigraphic units with the exception of the Kapai Slate.
The New Celebration operation, which was discovered by Newmont in 1982, was established in 1986, with total mineral resources in 1990 of 12.3 Mt @ 2.65g/t Au in a number of separate bodies including the New Celebration Line (7.47 Mt @ 2.46 g/t Au) comprising New Celebration, Mutooroo, Villers Bretonneux and Hampton Boulder, and the Jubilee Line (4.39 Mt @ 3 g/t Au) to the south, and Golden Hope (0.44 Mt @ 2.5 g/t Au) - (Norris, 1990) and Pernatty and Triumph to the north of the New Celebration Line. These deposits are referred to as the HBJ deposit, that are hosted within the Boulder-Lefroy shear zone over a strike length of >4 km
These mines had a checkered history of ownership through the 1980s and 1990s until the New Celebration and the Jubilee operations were merged in 2002 to form the South Kalgoorlie or South Kal Mine. The New Celebration/Hampton-Boulder and Jubilee mines, which in 2005 formed a 1 km long, continuous open pit, with a remaining resource at >5 g/t Au of 78 t, and had produced 45 to Au. In addition there are underground workings on the Hampton-Boulder mine. In 2005, the group of deposits was estimated to have a gold endowment of >100 t. (Weinberg et al., 2005).
The dominant geological structures in the deposit area are the Celebration and Resolution anticlines which expose in their cores a sequence of mafic and ultramafic rocks, which have been intruded by a number of porphyritic felsic to intermediate granitic dykes and differentiated dolerite sills, overlain by felsic volcaniclastics of the Black Flag Group. The Boulder-Lefroy Shear Zone truncates these folds, with the main gold resource contained within a series of semi-continuous deposits occurring within or immediately adjacent to the shear zone.
Structure exerts the prime control on mineralisation at all localities, and is controlled by brittle-ductile shear zones, first and second order structures that act as lithostratigraphic contacts and fluid conduits through late-stage brittle structures. In addition to the structural control, the development of mineralisation is also enhanced by the juxtaposition of fertile sulphidised intrusive porphyries and layered mafic intrusions with chemically reactive lithologies as well as a rheological contrast. The chemically favourable lithologies include the availability of iron to assist in sulphide formation and gold precipitation.
The Boulder-Lefroy Shear Zone is represented by a NNW striking, steeply west dipping, 100 m wide zone of intense shearing. The mineralisation is concentrated at the contact between schistose country rocks and a 1 km long and up to 80 m wide boudinaged granitic porphyry dyke, but also occurs within the dolerite dykes. The dyke dips steeply west and separates the hangingwall mafic rocks from the ultramafic footwall sequence. The major gold mineralisation occurs within stockworks of quartz-carbonate-pyrite veinlets along both contacts of the fractured porphyry to produce a series of tabular, steeply west dipping ore shoots. The main ore zone at Jubilee, which is hosted by the Jubilee Dolerite, has a strike length of >1.9 km and averages 40 m in width, whilst the Hampton-Boulder section to the north is generally narrower. Mineralisation is associated with an alteration assemblage of K feldspar, biotite, chlorite, carbonate, silica, pyrite and veins of quartz, carbonate and pyrite.
There are three main categories of ore style, namely:
i). those hosted by brittle porphyries, within the shear zone and adjacent to the iron rich Kapai Slate;
ii). shear controlled mineralisation within basic volcanics and intrusives; and
iii). quartz-vein related ores within basic volcanics and intrusives (particularly the gabbros/dolerites).
Remaining Ore Reserves and Mineral Resources at 30 June, 2018, now known as the South Kalgoorlie Project, were (Northern Star Resources Limited web site, September, 2019):
Ore Reserve
Probable Reserve, underground - 2.321 Mt @ 3.1 g/t Au for 7.2 t of contained gold;
Mineral Resource
Measured + Indicated + Inferred Resource, open pit - 38.148 Mt @ 1.8 g/t Au for 68.65 t of contained gold;
Measured + Indicated + Inferred Resource, underground - 15.074 Mt @ 2.9 g/t Au for 43.8 t of contained gold;
TOTAL Resource - 53.759 Mt @ 2.1 g/t Au for 112.5 t of contained gold.
Remaining Ore Reserves and Mineral Resources at 31 March 2022 (Northern Star Resources Reserves and Resources Statement, 2022) at the South Kalgoorlie Operations (SKO) were:
Ore Reserves
Proved + Probable Reserve, underground - 3.428 Mt @ 4.0 g/t Au for 13.9 t of contained gold;
Mineral Resources
Measured + Indicated + Inferred Resource, open pit - exhausted;
Measured + Indicated + Inferred Resource, underground - 24.843 Mt @ 3.1 g/t Au for 77.5 t of contained gold;
The Ghost Crab deposit, later renamed Mount Marion, was mined as part of the New Celebration operation, with ore being transported 25 km east to the New Celebration Mill.
The South Kalgoorlie Operations were acquired by Northern Star Resources in 2018, and in 2020 included that company's mines in the Coolgardie, Ora Banda, Kambalda and Boorara Domains. These comprise deposits in the Boulder-Lefroy, Zuleika, Abattoir, Boorara, Kunanulling, Binduli and Spargoville structural corridors. Ore is treated centrally at the Jubilee processing plant which processes up to 1.2 Mtpa of free milling gold ore at an overall gold recovery of ~90% (Northern Star Resources, 2022).
The most recent source geological information used to prepare this decription was dated: 2012.
This description is a summary from published sources, the chief of which are listed below.
© Copyright Porter GeoConsultancy Pty Ltd. Unauthorised copying, reproduction, storage or dissemination prohibited.
New Celebration
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Norris N D 1990 - New Celebration Gold Deposit: in Hughes FE (Ed.), 1990 Geology of the Mineral Deposits of Australia & Papua New Guinea The AusIMM, Melbourne v1 pp 449-454
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Weinberg R F, Van der Borgh P, Bateman R J and Groves D I, 2005 - Kinematic History of the Boulder-Lefroy Shear Zone System and Controls on Associated Gold Mineralization, Yilgarn Craton, Western Australia : in Econ. Geol. v100 pp 1407-1426
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Porter GeoConsultancy Pty Ltd (PorterGeo) provides access to this database at no charge. It is largely based on scientific papers and reports in the public domain, and was current when the sources consulted were published. While PorterGeo endeavour to ensure the information was accurate at the time of compilation and subsequent updating, PorterGeo, its employees and servants: i). do not warrant, or make any representation regarding the use, or results of the use of the information contained herein as to its correctness, accuracy, currency, or otherwise; and ii). expressly disclaim all liability or responsibility to any person using the information or conclusions contained herein.
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