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The Tarmoola Gold Mine is a gold mine located 29 km north-west of Leonora, Western Australia. The mine has been placed in care and maintenance since September 2004, when a pit wall failure forced its closure.〔(St Barbara annual report 2005 ) accessed: 7 February 2010〕 It is owned by St Barbara Limited.〔(St Barbara website - Leonora ) accessed: 8 February 2010〕 Apart from Tarmoola, St Barbara also operates the Marvel Loch Gold Mine and the Gwalia Gold Mine.〔(St Barbara website - Southern Cross ) accessed: 3 September 2009〕〔(St Barbara website - Operations overview ) accessed: 3 September 2009〕 All three mines were previously owned by the now-defunct mining company Sons of Gwalia Limited.〔''The Australian Mines Handbook: 2003-2004 Edition'', page 520〕 Sons of Gwalia went into administration on 30 August 2004 and the company's gold mining operations were sold to St Barbara in March 2005 for A$38 Million, having been valued by the Sons of Gwalia directors at A$120 Million. While Marvel Loch was operational before and after the sale, the Gwalia mine was already placed in care and maintenance at the time of the transaction. A fourth mine, the Carosue Dam Gold Mine, ceased operation in June 2005 and has since been sold by St Barbara.〔(Sons of Gwalia Limited at delisted.com.au ) accessed: 3 September 2009〕〔(St Barbara Mines Limited - Lodgement of Open Briefing ) published: 28 June 2005, accessed: 3 September 2009〕〔(''The West Australian'' ), published 16 March 2005, accessed: 3 September 2009〕 ==History== The mine, opened in May 1990,〔(Klaus Eckhof - Project Geologist and Business Development Manager of Mount Edon ) www.goldinvest.de, published: 18 January 2007, accessed: 8 February 2010〕 was discovered and developed by Mount Edon Mines until April 1997,〔(Mr Tony Brennan - Managing Director of Mount Edon Gold Mines Limited ) deltacapital.com.au, accessed: 8 February 2010〕 when it was taken over by jointly by Camelot Resources and the Teck Corporation through Reachwest Pty Ltd for A$158 million.〔(Joint Takeover Bid For Australian Mine ) ''The New York Times'', published: 23 January 1997, accessed: 8 February 2010〕 Camelot Resources was renamed Pacmin Mining in June 1998〔(Tarmoola Joint Venture ) acclaimexploration.com.au, accessed: 8 February 2010〕 and took control of all assets of the two companies in Australia.〔(Establishment of Pacific Mining Corporation ) Camelot ASX announcement, published: 13 March 1998, accessed: 8 February 2010〕 Pacmin was then taken over by Sons of Gwalia in October 2001 for A$210 million,〔(PACMIN MINING CORPORATION LIMITED (PML) ) delisted.com.au, accessed: 8 February 2010〕〔(Intention to Make Takeover Bid for PacMin Mining Corporation ) SGW ASX announcement, published: 23 August 2001, accessed: 8 February 2010〕 the mine thereby becoming part of the company's Leonora operations, together with the Gwalia mine. This merger also secured the Carosue Dam mine for Sons of Gwalia.〔(Sons of Gwalia annual report 2003 ) accessed: 12 January 2010〕〔(MINEDEX website - Tarmoola search result ) accessed: 8 February 2010〕 In February 2004, a pit wall failure caused disruptions to the mine, leading to its eventual closure in September 2004.〔 In retrospect, the purchase of Pacmin and Tarmoola was seen as very expensive, especially in the light of gold reserve write downs and operational difficulties at the mine.〔(ASX to probe Sons of Gwalia collapse ) ''ABC Australia'', published: 5 September 2004, accessed: 8 February 2010〕〔(Gwalia sweats on review ) metalsplace.com, published: 8 August 2004, accessed: 8 February 2010〕 Sons of Gwalia went into administration on 30 August 2004, following a financial collapse, with debts exceeding $800 million after suffering from falling gold reserves and hedging losses.〔(Ernst &Young agrees to $125m Sons of Gwalia settlement ) ''The West Australian'', published: 4 September 2009, accessed: 4 September 2009〕 Sons of Gwalia was Australia's third-largest gold producer and also controlled more than half the world's production of tantalum.〔(Sons of Gwalia's gold hedging had big holes ) ''The Sydney Morning Herald'', published: 4 September 2004, accessed: 4 September 2009〕 St Barbara purchased the mine from insolvent Sons of Gwalia in March 2005 but has not reopened the mine since.〔 The company placed the mine on the market in 2007, seeing little value in operating the mine because of high costs of production. St Barbara estimated that it would cost A$700 per ounce to mine at Tarmoola, at an average grade of 1.1 g/t.〔(St Barbara offloads Tarmoola goldmine ) ''The Sydney Morning Herald'', published: 9 November 2009, accessed: 8 February 2010〕 However, the sale of Tarmoola did not eventuate.〔(St Barbara considers underground gold mine at Tarmoola ) ''The Australian'', published: 14 April 2007, accessed: 8 February 2010〕 St Barbara has been reviewing the option of underground mining at Tarmoola in 2009 and processing the ore at Gwalia.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Tarmoola Gold Mine」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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