The Cannington Silver and Lead Mine is an Australian underground mine located in north-west

Queensland Queensland ( , commonly abbreviated as Qld) is a States and territories of Australia, state in northeastern Australia, and is the second-largest and third-most populous state in Australia. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Austr ...

, in the

Shire of McKinlay The Shire of McKinlay is a local government area in outback north-western Queensland, Australia. It covers an area of , and has existed as a local government entity since 1891. The shire economy is based on beef production and mining. BHP opera ...

, about southeast of

Mount Isa Mount Isa ( ) is a city in the Gulf Country region of Queensland, Australia. It came into existence because of the vast mineral deposits found in the area. Mount Isa Mines (MIM) is one of the most productive mines in world history, based on co ...

. The deposit was discovered by

BHP BHP Group Limited, founded as the Broken Hill Proprietary Company, is an Australian multinational mining and metals corporation. BHP was established in August 1885 and is headquartered in Melbourne, Victoria. As of 2024, BHP was the world� ...

in 1990.Abstract
The mine was the supplier of silver for the Sydney

2000 Summer Olympics The 2000 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XXVII Olympiad, officially branded as Sydney 2000, and also known as the Games of the New Millennium, were an international multi-sport event held from 15 September to 1 October ...

and the Beijing

2008 Summer Olympics The 2008 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXIX Olympiad () and officially branded as Beijing 2008 (), were an international multisport event held from 8 to 24 August 2008, in Beijing, China. A total of 10,942 athletes fro ...

. Cannington takes its name from the pastoral property near the deposit.

Geography

Cannington lies on a broad plain with a few low

mesa A mesa is an isolated, flat-topped elevation, ridge, or hill, bounded from all sides by steep escarpments and standing distinctly above a surrounding plain. Mesas consist of flat-lying soft sedimentary rocks, such as shales, capped by a ...

s. The plain is crossed by meandering rivers which are dry for a large part of the year, but which flood periodically. The area is semi-arid with of annual rainfall falling mostly between November and March. The mine itself lies near the confluence of the Hamilton River and Trepell Creek.

Geology

The deposit is in

Paleoproterozoic The Paleoproterozoic Era (also spelled Palaeoproterozoic) is the first of the three sub-divisions ( eras) of the Proterozoic eon, and also the longest era of the Earth's geological history, spanning from (2.5–1.6 Ga). It is further sub ...

Mesoproterozoic The Mesoproterozoic Era is a geologic era that occurred from . The Mesoproterozoic was the first era of Earth's history for which a fairly definitive geological record survives. Continents existed during the preceding era (the Paleoproterozoic ...

(2500–1000 mya)

metamorphosed Metamorphic rocks arise from the transformation of existing rock to new types of rock in a process called metamorphism. The original rock (protolith) is subjected to temperatures greater than and, often, elevated pressure of or more, causi ...

sedimentary rock Sedimentary rocks are types of rock (geology), rock formed by the cementation (geology), cementation of sediments—i.e. particles made of minerals (geological detritus) or organic matter (biological detritus)—that have been accumulated or de ...

s, known as the "Soldier's Cap Group", and is overlain by approximately of

Cretaceous The Cretaceous ( ) is a geological period that lasted from about 143.1 to 66 mya (unit), million years ago (Mya). It is the third and final period of the Mesozoic Era (geology), Era, as well as the longest. At around 77.1 million years, it is the ...

and more recent

overburden In mining, overburden (also called waste or spoil) is the material that lies above an area that lends itself to economical exploitation, such as the rock, soil, and ecosystem that lies above a coal seam or ore body. Overburden is distinct from tai ...

. The deposit was discovered as result of an

aeromagnetic survey An aeromagnetic survey is a common type of geophysical survey carried out using a magnetometer aboard or towed behind an aircraft. The principle is similar to a magnetic survey carried out with a hand-held magnetometer, but allows much larger are ...

of the Soldiers Cap Group in the eastern Mount Isa inlier. The area was selected for survey based upon extrapolations from known prospects and associated

lithostratigraphy Lithostratigraphy is a sub-discipline of stratigraphy, the geological science associated with the study of strata or rock layers. Major focuses include geochronology, comparative geology, and petrology. In general, strata are primarily igneous ...

. In other words, the rocks were the same as other known prospects, only slightly more deeply buried. The aeromagnetic survey pinpointed Cannington as a potential site and subsequent drilling proved it out. The theory of formation of the Cannington deposit, and the related deposits at

McArthur River The McArthur River is a river in the Northern Territory of Australia which flows into the Gulf of Carpentaria at Port McArthur, opposite the Sir Edward Pellew Group of Islands. The river was named by Ludwig Leichhardt while he explored the a ...

Century A century is a period of 100 years or 10 decades. Centuries are numbered ordinally in English and many other languages. The word ''century'' comes from the Latin ''centum'', meaning ''one hundred''. ''Century'' is sometimes abbreviated as c. ...

, Hilton, and George Fisher, is explored in a 2005 paper by Large, ''et al''. The major ore minerals are

galena Galena, also called lead glance, is the natural mineral form of lead(II) sulfide (PbS). It is the most important ore of lead and an important source of silver. Galena is one of the most abundant and widely distributed sulfide minerals. It crysta ...

and

sphalerite Sphalerite is a sulfide mineral with the chemical formula . It is the most important ore of zinc. Sphalerite is found in a variety of deposit types, but it is primarily in Sedimentary exhalative deposits, sedimentary exhalative, Carbonate-hoste ...

. The silver occurs mainly as

freibergite Freibergite is a complex sulfosalt mineral of silver, copper, iron, antimony and arsenic with formula . It has cubic crystals and is formed in hydrothermal deposits. It forms one solid solution series with tetrahedrite and another with argentote ...

but is also present in solid solution within the galena.

Mining

The deposit was discovered by

in 1990. Although sitework and underground mining began in 1997, full production was not achieved until early 1999, with 1.5 million tons of ore processed in 1999. Production since has reached 3 million tons of ore per year. it was the largest and lowest cost silver and lead mine in the world. The expected life of the Cannington mine is 25 years.

Management

On 19 August 2014,

announced it was splitting the company in two with Cannington Mine amongst the assets transferred to

South32 South32 Limited is a mining and metals company headquartered in Perth, Western Australia. It was spun out of BHP Billiton on 18 May 2015. It is listed on the Australian Securities Exchange with secondary listings on the Johannesburg and Londo ...

Facilities

The mine site is serviced by road from McKinlay and the private Trepell Airport. A small housing settlement exists on site for mine workers, consisting of 270 short term accommodation rooms, 364 village rooms, and serving about 67 000 meals per month. Employment is given as about 600 people and a further 300 to 400 contractors, of which 70% of the mine workers are estimated to be

fly-in fly-out Fly-in fly-out is a method of employing people in remote areas by flying them temporarily to the work site instead of relocating employees and their families permanently. It is often abbreviated to FIFO when referring to employment status. This i ...

(FIFO) from

Townsville The City of Townsville is a city on the north-eastern coast of Queensland, Australia. With a population of 201,313 as of 2024, it is the largest settlement in North Queensland and Northern Australia (specifically, the parts of Australia north of ...

. The mine site has a 3

megawatt The watt (symbol: W) is the unit of Power (physics), power or radiant flux in the International System of Units (SI), equal to 1 joule per second or 1 kg⋅m2⋅s−3. It is used to quantification (science), quantify the rate of Work ...

solar farm to reduce gas consumption and associated greenhouse gas emissions. Electricity generated by the solar farm is used to supply the operation’s accommodation village and airport with surplus power used to support mining and processing operations. It is anticipated that the solar farm will prevent between 4,000 and 6,000 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions per year. Two deaths have occurred at the site, a 19-year-old trainee driller on 15 December 2006, and a fifty-one-year-old contractor on 17 January 2008.

Notes

External links

Cannington Deposit Summary Report

Cannington
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cannington Mine Underground mines in Australia Zinc mines in Queensland Silver mines in Queensland Lead mines in Queensland 1997 establishments in Australia North West Queensland