The Stawell Gold Mine (SGM) is a gold mine located in the town of
Stawell, Victoria
Stawell ( "stall"), is an Australian town in the Wimmera region of Victoria (Australia), Victoria west-north-west of the state capital, Melbourne. Located within the Shire of Northern Grampians Local government in Australia, local government are ...
. The current site was established in 1981, however mining has occurred on and around the site since the town was established in the mid 19th century.
The mine reaches depths of up to 1.6 Kilometers (0.99 Miles).
For a long time, the Stawell operations were closely related with those at the
Fosterville Gold Mine outside
Bendigo
Bendigo ( ) is an Australian city in north-central Victoria. The city is located in the Bendigo Valley near the geographical centre of the state and approximately north-west of Melbourne, the state capital.
As of 2022, Bendigo has a popula ...
, however this changed when Arete Capital Partners purchased Stawell, but left Fosterville in the hands of
Kirkland Lake Gold
Kirkland Lake Gold Inc. was a Canadian gold mining company based in Toronto. It owned and operated several gold mines in Canada and Australia before its merger into Agnico Eagle in 2021.
History
The company was founded in 1988 as Goldpac Investme ...
(Now
Agnico Eagle Mines Ltd.).
History
Crocodile Gold obtained the mine in 2012. At a stage under ownership of Croc Gold, the mine was planned to transition to an
open cut
Open-pit mining, also known as open-cast or open-cut mining and in larger contexts mega-mining, is a surface mining technique that extracts rock or minerals from the earth.
Open-pit mines are used when deposits of commercially useful ore or ro ...
style of mine, however environmental agencies restricted this from happening, as it would have involved inverting Stawell's big hill, a local landmark
The mine transitioned into the hands of Newmarket Gold Inc. in July 2015, after Crocodile Gold Corp. and its assets were absorbed into the company.
In 2016, under the ownership of Newmarket Gold's successor, Kirkland Lake Gold, the mine ceased underground mining, laying off around 150 staff, leaving the mine in a limbo state
In 2017, the Arete Capital partners obtained a controlling share in the company, going on to examine the path the mine would take in the future to maximise production, with restoring and servicing all the mines production assets, the mine would go on to reopen fully in early 2019, with the first gold pour since the closure occurring that February.
In 2019, construction on the
Stawell Underground Physics Laboratory
The Stawell Underground Physics Laboratory (SUPL) is a laboratory 1 km deep in the Stawell Gold Mine, located in Stawell, Shire of Northern Grampians, Victoria, Australia. Together with the planned Agua Negra Deep Experiment Site (AND ...
(SUPL), commenced 1 km below surface level inside the mine, the facility opened in August 2022.
References
{{Mines in Victoria
Gold mines in Australia
Stawell, Victoria