AGNEW GOLD MINE
Producing more than 250,000 ounces of gold each year, Gold Fields’ Agnew mine site is located in the Eastern Goldfields region.
It is situated 23kms west of Leinster, 375kms north of Kalgoorlie and almost 1000km from Perth.
Gold Fields acquired the mine in 2001, and gold is sourced from underground operations and processed via CIP plant.
Most of the almost 650-strong Agnew workforce reside in Perth and work at the mine via a fly-in/fly-out roster.
Two chartered jet flights depart Perth Airport twice weekly, with the flight to Leinster taking about one hour. Leinster Airport is 15kms from the township, and 23kms from the site.
Life at camp
Less than 2kms from the Agnew Mine site, the Agnew Village offers our fly-in-fly-out personnel free use of a gym and recreational facilities include games and outdoor sports.
Gold Fields provides all meals via the village, while accommodation options include an ensuite single room with fridge, TV, Wi-Fi and a phone.
Mining Operations
The consolidated Waroonga and New Holland underground complex comprise the mining operations at Agnew.
Underground workings are accessible from the Waroonga and New Holland Pits.
Contract miner Barminco Limited carry out the underground production and development at Warroonga.
A dedicated Gold Fields team control underground production, development, maintenance, in addition to high and low voltage electrical works, at New Holland.
Processing Plant
The Agnew processing plant has scope of approximately 1.3 million tonnes per annum treating fresh ore from the New Holland and Waroonga underground mines.
The plant is made up of a tertiary crushing circuit, a two stage grinding circuit composed of a 1.1MW primary ball and 1.1MW secondary ball mill, gravity recovery including two 40” Knelson concentrators and a Gekko In-line Leach reactor, three Leach and six Carbon-in-Pulp (CIP) pachuca tanks, pressure Zadra elution circuit and an in-pit tailings storage facility.
Renewable Energy Project leads the way
The Agnew Hybrid Renewable Project is Australia’s largest hybrid renewable energy microgrid. It is also the first mine in the world to utilise wind generation at a mine site. Agnew is leading the way in the transition to renewable power for off-grid mining operations.
The microgrid is comprised of a 16MW gas and 3MW diesel generation, 4MW solar generation from the solar farm, wind turbines that generate 18MW, a 13MW/4MWh battery energy storage system and an advanced micro-grid control system.
Since the microgrid was commissioned in 2020, 55% of Agnew’s electrical power is renewable source power and depending on the right conditions, more than 80% of the site’s electrical power is generated by the five 110m tall wind turbines and solar farm.
The microgrid project, in addition to the village and the planned greater Agnew infrastructure upgrades, showcase Gold Fields’ commitment to sustainability and innovative solutions that will benefit all of our stakeholders now and into the future.