RNC – Beta Hunt – Producing Mine

The Beta Hunt Mine is a low-cost gold mine located in the prolific Kambalda mining district of Australia. RNC has as 100% interest in Salt Lake Mining Pty Ltd. (“SLM”), a private company whose main asset is a 100% interest in the Beta Hunt Mine.

Beta Hunt Mine Overview

The Beta Hunt Mine, located 600 km from Perth in Kambalda, Western Australia, is a deposit with the very rare feature of hosting both nickel and gold resources in adjacent discrete mineralized zones. The mining tenements on which the Beta Hunt Mine is located are held by Gold Fields Limited. SLM operates the Beta Hunt Mine by virtue of a sub-lease agreement with Gold Fields Limited.

Brief history

The Kambalda mining district in Western Australia is a long-established major mining centre with excellent existing infrastructure, a skilled local workforce, and nickel and gold processing mills nearby. Beta Hunt was originally a core WMC (Western Mining Co) asset discovered in 1966, producing 153,500 tonnes of nickel metal up to 1998. It was sold to Gold Fields Limited in 2001. In 2003, Reliance Mining acquired nickel rights for A$11.7M, developed an operation, and was acquired by Consolidated Minerals for A$76.5M in 2005. Consolidated Minerals placed the mine on care and maintenance at the end of 2008.

The Beta Hunt Mine was acquired by SLM in 2013 for A$10M after securing gold mining rights from Gold Fields Limited. The mine began producing nickel in 2014 and began gold production in November 2015. Currently, RNC is ramping up gold production and nickel production was curtailed in the third quarter of 2018.

Exploration Opportunities

The SLM land package includes significant exploration opportunities at Beta Hunt to add to the SLM resources alongside production.

Geology

The Beta Hunt mine is situated within the central portion of the Norseman-Wiluna greenstone belt in a sequence of mafic/ultramafic and felsic rocks on the southwest flank of the Kambalda Dome. Nickel mineralization is hosted mainly by talc-carbonate and serpentine altered ultramafic rocks and is typically pyrrhotite-pentlandite-pyrite+- chalcopyrite.  Gold mineralization occurs mainly in the Lunnon Basalt, which is the footwall to the nickel-bearing ultramafics, and is characterized by intense albite, carbonate and chlorite alteration, with a halo of biotite/pyrite alteration.

Mining

Beta Hunt is owner operated using conventional underground mining methods. 

Milling

All processing is conducted under tolling contracts with local processing plants.

Further reading – http://www.rncminerals.com/beta-hunt-mine