Northparkes history
North Limited approved development of
Northparkes in November 1992, 15 years after the first discovery
was made, based on open cut mining of E22 and E27 and underground
mining of E26 with the 'Mining Reserve' as 64.1 Mt.
Development was staged with initial production in November 1993
from the E22 and E27 open pits and later from the E26 underground
block cave mine in 1996. The ore processing plant comprised two
modules and began treating oxide ore from E22 and E27 in April
1994, oxide ore was exhausted from the open cuts in 1997.
In October 1993 construction of the E26 underground block cave
mine, Australia's first, commenced. The initial mine, designated
Lift 1, was designed to exploit the orebody from the 480m level to
the base of the E26 open cut, based on a reserve of 28.7 Mt @ 1.45%
Cu and 0.39 g/t. In 1997 Lift 1 reached design production of 3.9
Mtpa and become the world's most productive underground hard rock
mine, producing 42,600 tonnes of ore per underground employee year
(including contractors). Productivity peaked in 2000, reaching over
50,000t per employee.
Construction of the second block cave mine
to exploit the orebody from the 830m level to the base of Lift 1,
E26 Lift 2, was approved by Rio Tinto in 2001. As production from
Lift 1 declined, stockpiled ore from the earlier open cut mining
campaign was processed. Open cut mining resumed in 2000 to maintain
the mill at full capacity during the transition to Lift 2.
Northparkes commissioned its second block cave mine, E26 Lift 2 in
2004 and an extension, E26 Lift 2 North, in 2008. In 2006
Northparkes commenced construction of E48 Lift 1, its third major
block cave mine, with full production expected to be achieved in
late 2010. E48 extends the life of Northparkes' operations until
2024.