Sunrise Dam, Australia

The Sunrise Dam gold mine lies on the eastern shore of Lake Carey in the northern goldfields of Western Australia, some 770km north-east of Perth, 220km north/north-east of Kalgoorlie and 55km south of Laverton. It is 100% owned by AngloGold Ashanti.

Formerly just an open cut mine, the operation comprises of both a large open pit and an underground mine. Each commenced operations in 1997 and 2003 respectively.

The mine achieved record production of 600,000 oz for 2007, largely due to the GQ zone in the open pit. Just under 80,000 oz was sourced from the underground mine.


The conversion of the mine’s diesel power station to liquefied natural gas (LNG) went according to plan in 2007 and the new LNG facility will start operating in the second quarter of 2008. AngloGold says that this will lead to drastically reduced energy costs as well as reduced greenhouse emissions.

Capital expenditure for the year amounted to A$35m (US $30m), and was spent mostly on the underground operation. Major items of expenditure included capitalised underground development in the Cosmo lode and the Sunrise Shear Zone decline, as well as costs relating to the north wall cutback and the expansion of the village.

Some 360 people are employed at the mine, 255 of whom are contractors.



Geology and reserves

Gold ore at Sunrise Dam is structurally and lithologically controlled within gently dipping high-strain shear zones (for example, Sunrise Shear) and steeply dipping brittle-ductile low-strain shear zones (for example, Western Shear). Host rocks include andesitic volcanic rocks, volcanogenic sediments and magnetic shales.

Total ore reserves as of the end of 2007 were 552,000 oz (underground), 1.1m oz (open pit). Total mineral resources were 3.078 m oz Au.



Mining and processing

The mine comprises a large open pit, which is now in its 11th year of operation, and an underground mine, which began production in 2003. All the mining is carried out by contractors and ore is treated in a conventional gravity and carbon-in-leach (CIL) processing plant which is owner-managed.



Production and costs

Production for 2007 rose by an expected 29% to hit a record 600,000oz, compared to 465,000oz for 2006.


The GQ zone in the open pit provided the anticipated large volumes of high-grade ore, which accounted for the increase in annual gold production. Some 80,000oz of gold came from the underground mine. Progress was made in developing access to the Cosmo, Dolly and Watu lodes, and 2,000m of underground capital development and 6,100m of operational development were completed. A total of 67,400m of diamond drilling was also completed.

Processing plant throughput in 2007 was 3.8Mt, slightly lower than the record throughput of 3.9Mt in 2006. Total cash costs fell by 8% to A$364/oz (up by 3% in US dollar terms to $306/oz).

Despite rising costs, the greater volume of ore mined, and the high value of the Australian dollar, the increase in production, due primarily to the higher grade of ore mined, resulted in the decrease in cash costs, year-on-year.