THE future of Cadia Valley Operations in the Blayney Shire has gone underground with confirmation their open pit is set to close.
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After 14 years, the Cadia Hill open pit has reached the end of its life span, with a third of workers set to lose their jobs.
Cadia Valley Operations (CVO) general manager Tony McPaul confirmed about 70 of the pit’s 200 workers would no longer be employed once the pit closed on June 30.
He said the pit’s workforce was comprised of employees and contractors, and it was the contractors who would soon be looking for a new job.
“CVO will work closely with the CVO employees involved in the project to ensure a smooth transition into other roles on-site and elsewhere within Newcrest,” he said.
An end was always in sight for the Cadia Hill open pit, according to Mr McPaul, who said the orebody was low grade “as gold mines go”.
During the pit’s life span, 680 million tonnes of rock was pulled from the earth, with an average of just 0.78 grams of gold found per tonne.
“For obvious reasons, as mines of any sort go deeper they become more costly to operate and each project must be assessed against a wide range of variables,” Mr McPaul said.
The move into underground mining has long been on the agenda for CVO.
Shortly after the Cadia Hill pit opened, CVO developed the Ridgeway Gold Mine in 2002, the Cadia Extended open pit, which operated from 2003 to 2004, the Ridgeway Deeps Gold Mine in 2010 and the Cadia East Gold Mine in 2012.
“The Cadia East Gold Mine is the future of Cadia Valley Operations and represents a solid, long-term sustainable investment in the Orange region,” Mr McPaul said.
“The Cadia East Gold Mine has an anticipated life of more than 30 years, subject to internal and external approvals.
“It will be a low-cost, bulk mining operation which can ride the waves of a cyclical industry to provide sustained economic support to the Orange region and direct and indirect jobs for nearly 1900 people.”
Mr McPaul said the pit’s fleet of Caterpillar haul trucks would be redistributed to Newcrest’s Telfer Gold Mine in Western Australia.
The local branch of Westrac, which maintains the truck fleet, will continue to provide maintenance services for surface and underground fleet.
Mr McPaul said once the open pit closed it would be maintained while technical studies were undertaken to determine further opportunities.
