Vancouver — Following a recent rock fall at its Ballarat mine in Australia’s Victoria state, Lihir Gold (LGG-T, LIHR-Q, LGL-A) is moving to re-establish underground development operations.
The ground fall occurred over an area of about 12 metres — about 700 metres down the gold mine’s main decline. There were no injuries to the 27 miners working underground at the time of the incident; they were evacuated through a ventilation shaft.
Lihir Gold acquired the project through its takeover of Ballarat Goldfields in 2006. With development well under way, the mine is scheduled to start commercial operations in the second half of 2008. Recent processing of some low-grade preproduction ore returned a modest amount of gold from development workings.
Based on past work, Ballarat East is estimated to host an inferred resource of about 3.1 million tonnes grading 11 grams gold per tonne (1.1 million contained ounces gold).
The company also operates the open-pit Lihir gold mine, in Papua New Guinea, forecast to produce about 750,000 oz. gold in 2007.
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