The Northparkes copper-gold project is being developed in
Central Western New South Wales approximately 30 km NNW of
the town of Parkes and approximately 350 km west of Newcastle. The project is a joint venture between North Limited (80 per
cent) and the Sumitomo Group (20 per cent). North is the
manager. The basis of the project is three copper-gold orebodies,
the northern two of which are being mined by conventional open
cut methods with the third and largest orebody at the southern
end of the lease to be mined by block caving. A fourth
mineralised body has been identified in the centre of the lease.
While further evaluation of this deposit is required it would
appear to be amenable to block caving. Oxide caps of gold ore
and copper-gold ore over-lie the two northern orebodies. Development commenced with the construction of a
carbon-in-pulp (CIP) plant to treat the oxide gold ore.
Construction of a flotation plant to treat oxide copper-gold ore
and sulphide copper-gold ore is underway. When full-scale
operation is achieved late in 1996 the plant will treat 5.0 million
tonnes of ore per year of which 1.1 million tonnes will be open
cut ore and 3.9 million tonnes will be block cave ore. In terms of
annual ore tonnage the underground mine will be the largest
metalliferous mine in New South Wales and the second largest in
Australia.