Higginsville
The gold operations at Higginsville are located approximately 75km south of the Beta Hunt Mine in Higginsville, Western Australia.
The operation includes a 1.6Mtpa processing plant, 192 mining tenements including the Aquarius, Hidden Secret, Mousehollow, Two Boys, Baloo, Pioneer, Fairplay North, Mitchell, Wills, Challenge and Mount Henry deposits.
HISTORY
Avoca Resources Limited (Avoca) initially purchased the Higginsville exploration assets from Gold Fields in June 2004. The Trident underground deposit, historically the largest deposit at HGO, was discovered by Avoca in 2004 with mining commencing at the deposit in 2007.
In April 2007 Avoca raised A$125 million to commission a new process plant facility at Higginsville. In that same year Avoca purchased the neighbouring Chalice deposit from Chalice Gold Mines Limited. Gold production began in 2008 with the first gold pour on 1 July 2008.
Alacer Gold Corporation, a wholly owned subsidiary of Alacer Gold a company incorporated in Canada, acquired the Higginsville assets after it merged with Avoca Resources Limited (Avoca) in 2011.
On 29 October 2013, Alacer Gold Corporations completed the sale of its Australian Business Unit, which included the operations and assets at Higginsville, to Westgold Resources Pty Ltd, a wholly owned subsidiary of Metals X Ltd at that time.
In July 2015, Metals X acquired the Mt Henry Gold Project from Panoramic Resources Ltd and Matsa Resources Limited.
On 1 December 2016, Westgold Resources Limited demerged from Metals X Ltd. Avoca remained a subsidiary of Westgold Resources Limited and was part of the resultant demerger.
Karora Resources acquired the operations at Higginsville outright on 10 June 2019 from Westgold. Westgold subsequently merged with Karora on 1 August 2024.
GEOLOGY
Higginsville is located almost entirely within the well-mineralised Archean Kalgoorlie Terrane, between the gold mining centres of Norseman and Saint Ives. The Archaean stratigraphy has a general northward trend comprising multiply deformed ultramafic – gabbro – basalt successions adjoined by sediments to the west and east. Shearing and faulted contacts are common. The units have been structurally repeated by east over west thrust faulting.
The majority of gold mineralisation projects along the Trident line-of-lode and is hosted by Poseidon Gabbro and high MgO dyke complexes. Mineralisation is hosted within or marginal to quartz veining and is structurally and lithologically controlled.
Higginsville is also host to significant palaeochannel mineralisation. Mineralised zones comprise both placer gold, normally near the base of the channel-fill sequences, and chemically-precipitated secondary gold within the channel-fill materials and underlying saprolite. These gold concentrations commonly overlie, or are adjacent to, primary mineralised zones within Archaean bedrock.
MINING
Currently, Westgold is mining from the Two Boys underground operations and Pioneer open pit in the Higginsville Central Area.
MILLING
Processing is conducted through Westgold’s Higginsville processing plant.
