Whim Creek Copper Mine - History

History

Copper was discovered several kilometres west of the town in 1872 and gold 20 km (12 mi) north in 1887.

Copper has been mined on and off at Whim Creek over a period of 120 years. Copper was mined initially via a series of small adits and stopes into the Whim Creek and Mons Cupri deposits by artisanal miners, with records indicating that as early as 1882 small quantities of malachite, azurite, chrysocolla and other copper minerals were being won. Copper was shipped via a small port on the coast at the nearby town of Balla Balla. A single track narrow-gauge railway ran from Whim Creek to Balla Balla. At its peak, the town supported two hotels, a blacksmith, a police station and a horse track.

In the early 1900s a second period of mining began, with around 60,000 tonnes of copper concentrate produced mainly from the Whim Creek Mine. In the 1960s Japanese interests undertook a resource drilling program, with diamond core drilling, and built a small oxide mining operation. This shut down in the early 1970s. The mine used two large diesel engines from World War One submarines to power the mine equipment. The engine blocks can still be seen on the site today.

The leases passed to Whim Creek Consolidated Limited, but the company found profit elsewhere, and the mining leases were passed through several owners until the mid-1990s when Straits Resources Limited took over the tenure.

Straits undertook a resource definition drilling programme and upgraded the resource to around 10 million tonnes of ore grading 1% copper, predominantly composed of oxidised copper minerals such as malachite, azurite, chalcocite and chrysocolla. Other minerals noted within the ore bodies are willemite, sphalerite, chalcopyrite and rare native copper. The majority of resources were defined at the Mons Cupri deposit and the Whim Creek deposit.

Straits Resources Limited, after closure of the Girilambone Copper Mine in 2001-02, investigated the feasibility of translocating the solvent extraction and electrowinning plant from New South Wales to Whim Creek to set up a large scale open cut oxide copper SX-EW heap leach operation. Operations commenced in 2003, with pre-stripping of the pits and commencement of site works, with the mine fully commissioned in mid-2005.

The Whim Creek ore bodies are expected to be exhausted of copper oxide ore within early 2009. An option exists for the operation to continue as a sulphide operation thereafter.