The Red Dome Gold/Copper Mine is located approximately 15 km west
of the township of Chillagoe which itself is approximately 220 km by
road west of Cairns, Far North Queensland. The deposit, with other mines in the Mungana region, was worked
from about 1901 to 1927. Exploration by Amoco Minerals Australia in
the 1970s and early 1980s outlined a geological resource of 15 million
tonnes. A mining reserve of 9.3 million tonnes was identified and
originally developed by Elders Resources Limited. The mine commenced operations in March 1986 and was the first
large-scale gold project in Australia to be developed solely on the heap
leach process. The mine operated successfully as a gold heap leach operation until
1989 when new grinding, flotation and carbon-in-leach plant facilities
were installed to process the non heap-leachable component of the
orebody including the copper rich -ore. In March 1991, Red Dome Pty
Ltd became a wholly owned subsidiary of Niugini Mining Limited. After six years of successful operation and having excavated a 200 in
deep pit, it became evident in 1992 that unless more open cut reserves
could be identified the operation was limited to six to nine months of high
grade ore and a further 15 months of low grade stockpile material. A preliminary feasibility study was carried out to assess the viability of
deepening the open cut. This indicated that from a technical and financial
point of view it was possible to expand and deepen the open cut. This presented the daunting challenge of developing a 300 in deep,
single access, open cut between a high chert ridge, a government railway
line and a National Park. The meeting of this challenge is the subject of
this paper.