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The Norseman Project lies at the southern extent of the Norseman-Wiluna Greenstone Belt of the Eastern Goldfields Province of the Yilgarn Block, Western Australia. Gold was first discovered atNorseman in 1894 following discoveries at Dundas, 22km to the south, in 1892.
 
The majority of production has come from the Mararoa-Crown reefs and North Royal reefs totalling inexcess of 5.5 million ounces to June 2008. Gold has principally been mined from narrow, broadly north-south striking, east-dipping quartz veins hosted by biotite-altered and sheared mafic andultramafic rocks of the Woolyeenyer Formation. Cross-link structures, such as the quartz reef mined from the Bullen ore body, strike approximately WNW to ENE and dip steeply towards the south arealso important ore sources. Minor mineralisation occurs as sulphidation systems within the upper banded-iron units of the Noganyer Formation.
 
Besides gold mineralisation, the Norseman Project also holds magnetite iron ore potential. The Company holdings include the Fraser Range Projects located some 120km south-east of Norseman. [READ MORE]

Exploration

The Company has a plethora of project opportunities at all levels of development from grassroots to mineralised prospects to undeveloped resources and reserves.
 
Three of the most advanced development opportunities are the OK Decline, North Royal open cut and the Crown Reef target. Harlequin South is a new project that, though less advanced, is quiteexciting for reasons discussed shortly. Each of these projects is centrally located within 9km of the Phoenix processing facility, along a largely-sealed road system as portrayed on the following diagram. Close proximity of good roads to the Phoenix mill help improve the chance of progressingsuch opportunities to production.

Mining Methods
The key characteristics of the Norseman orebodies that govern mining method selection are typically:
    * narrow vein, between 0.3m to 4.0m wide
    * highly variable in geometry over short distances
    * high grade and nuggetty, that is grade can vary widely over short distances
    * ground conditions are generally good
 
With these characteristics, selective mining methods are required, with the mining methods in use at Norseman consisting of:
    * longhole and mechanised stoping
    * airleg stoping

Bullen Decline
The Bullen mine portal is located 0.7km east of the Norseman Township and adjacent to the PhoenixMill. Mining commenced in 1991 and has produced approximately 1.8 million tonnes at 11g/t for630,000 ounces until October 2009.
 
Current operations are concentrated on the Bullen, St Patricks and Norseman reefs with futurereserves in the O’Brien’s Reef.
 
A general longsection of the Bullen mine is shown in Figure 6 – Bullen Decline mineral Structures and Development.

Access is via the portal and decline centred around the Bullen and Bullen West lodes. Access to the St Patrick’s and Norseman reefs is via a drive expanded along the old Mararoa 16 level, a flat haul ofapproximately 2km. Decline and cross-cut development is performed utilising Atlas Copco M2D twin boom jumbos and bogged with Atlas Copco 1520 loaders. Level development is undertaken utilisingAtlas Copco H104 single boom jumbo’s and bogged with Caterpillar R1300 loaders. All ore and waste is hauled form the mine by Atlas Copco trucks.
 
Production is predominantly via airleg stoping methods contributing 50% of hauled ore tonnes, with 10% of hauled tonnes contributed from longhole and other mechanised means, and the remaining40% of hauled tonnes coming from development.
 
Harlequin Decline
The Harlequin mine is located 9km north of Norseman and 11km from the Phoenix Mill. Mining commenced in 1995 and has produced approximately 2.1 million tonnes at 11g/t containing 0.7million ounces of gold up to October 2009. The mine is located under Lake Cowan, a large salt lake.
 
Access to the mine is via twin 5.5m by 5.3m declines, located on the main landmass due to thedifficulties developing through the lake mud sediment. One decline serves for access and the other as an escape way/primary return airway. Mining takes place at a depth of 200m to 700m belowsurface, focussed on the Redfin, HV1, HV5, HV6 and Marlin reefs. Recent development and drilling has defined the new Perch reef which is developing into a major contributor to future production at Harlequin.
 
Production is via airleg stoping methods which contributed 25% of hauled ore tonnes in the current calendar year, with 10% of hauled tonnes from longhole and other mechanised means, and theremaining 65% of hauled tonnes coming from development. Harlequin’s production for the current year is skewed to development as new stoping areas are being opened up.
 
OK Decline
Work on the OK underground is currently underway with the first development blast scheduled to befired in late 2009/early 2010, with first ore to be hauled to surface during the March Quarter in 2010.
 
Currently a mine life of two years is supported by the reserve position for the mine, this is howeverexpected to substantially increase as Star of Erin resources and depth and strike extensions are developed.
 
The production profile for OK will be substantially different to that of the other two mines with longhole production being the dominant production method. Longhole stoping is forecast to produce 65% ofore tonnes with the remaining 35% coming from development. No airleg production mining is forecast at this point in time.
 
North Royal Open Pit
To date, preliminary pit optimisations have been performed on the Inferred Resource, which indicate that an economically viable series of pit cutbacks may exist if current and future drill programs firm upthe resource. Initial estimates are that a pit could be started during the second half of 2010.