History
Gold was first discovered in the area at Jonesville (now part of the Swan Bitter deposit) in 1926, with first recorded gold production in 1931. Modern mining operations commenced in the 1980’s and ceased in 2005 when the gold price was approximately A$550/oz. To that time, in excess of one million ounces of gold were produced from more than 20 open pits and three underground mines, with the main gold-producing areas being Swan-Swift, Kingfisher, Omega and Montague. Production during the modern era is shown in figure below.
Exploration and Studies by Panoramic Gold from
2011 – 2016
| 2016 | Horizon Gold Limited acquired the Gum Creek Gold Project from Panoramic Resources Limited Free Milling Scoping Study (reported March 2016). 800ktpa CIL to produce 290,000oz over 6 years from Swan-Swift and Howards IP surveys on Wilsons Shear undertaken Metallurgical and processing testwork on Wilson refractory mineralisation |
| 2015 | Belt-wide airborne EM and ground gravity surveys. 14 targets identified (NewExco) |
| 2014 | Prospectivity Study (Duggan and Willson) |
| 2013 | 35,000m of RC & core drilling at Wilsons, Swan-Swift, Howards & Shiraz. Resource upgrade to 1.3Moz Metallurgical and engineering studies on refractory Wilsons-Resources |
| 2012 | Wilsons refractory deposit acquired for $8M (325,000oz) Resource extension drilling. Resource up by 63% to 1,049,000oz Aug 2012 Scoping Study on free milling and refractory mineralisation. 1.05Mtpa CIL+BIOX to produce 606,000oz gold over seven years |
| 2011 | Panoramic Resources Limited acquired the project from Apex Minerals NL Main tenement package acquired for $15M (310,000oz) Mapping and target generation studies (Jigsaw) |
Discovery and production of the Project from
1926 – 2007
| 2007 | The Project was acquired by Apex Minerals NL |
| 2005 | Legend ceased mining (gold price US$550/oz) and placed the operation onto care and maintenance |
| 2003 | Harmony sold the Project to Legend Mining Abelle was taken over by Harmony Gold |
| 2002 | Open pit mining ceased and milling focused on underground ore from Swan Bitter |
| 1999 | Abelle Limited took over and resumed mining in February 2000 |
| 1988 | Arimco / Australian Resources Limited |
| 1926 | Gold discovered at Jonesville (now Swan Bitter) |
