Porphyry
The Porphyry deposit lies approximately 48km North of the Carosue Dam processing plant. The Porphyry mining area has a long history of gold mining, having been mined intermittently over the past 75 years. Historical production from the Porphyry mine is 1.33Mt @ 3.36g/t producing 144koz from both underground and surface operations.
Porphyry is a large mineralised body with published resources of around 435koz and Open-pit reserves of 78koz. Phase 1's pit design has a strip ratio of 1.6:1 with the overall open-cut Strip Ratio of 3:1. Saracen commenced mining of stage 1 of the Porphyry deposit cutback late in 2009.
This deposit is highly leveraged to the gold price, with significant expansion potential, including underground. The current known zone of mineralisation is still open down dip and plunge. Previous underground development was conducted within the ore zone via a room and pillar underground mining method, with minimal waste (capital) development. The underground mine ceased development in the 1980’s due to a depressed gold price. The second phase of operations are likely to consist of underground mining based on a continuation of development within the high grade core of the resource, down dip and plunge.
A new section of haul road was constructed early in 2010, between the Carosue Dam processing plant and the Porphyry mine, connecting Porphyry into the existing haul road network. This haul road also connected the Wallbrook, Margaret, Million Dollar and Enterprise deposits into the haulage network at Carosue Dam.
Porphyry Pit looking South-West
