Selwyn Mine (Mount Selwyn Mine), Selwyn District, Cloncurry Shire, Queensland, Australiai

Regional Level Types
Selwyn Mine (Mount Selwyn Mine)	Mine
Selwyn District	Mining District
Cloncurry Shire	Shire
Queensland	State
Australia	Country

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Proterozoic (Fe)-Cu-Au deposit.

Open cut mining of the oxide-zone gold deposits was commenced along the Starra Line in 1988 by Armico Mining and subsequently underground mining produced copper / gold concentrate from sulphide ore. The mine operated between 1988 and 2003.

Development of a modern underground mine at nearby Mount Elliott commenced in 1993 by Selwyn Mines. Production at Mount Elliott and Starra since start-up in 1988 to closure in 2003 totalled approximately 217,700 tonnes of copper and 1.02 million ounces of gold from a mined tonnage of approximately 12.9 million tonnes averaging 3.10g/t Au and 2.38% Cu.

In 2002, Selwyn Mines experienced difficulties and the Selwyn Mines operation closed as a consequence. Chinova (then Ivanhoe Australia) acquired Selwyn’s tenements in late 2003 and commenced exploration.

Since 2004, the company has undertaken extensive drilling on the partially drilled copper gold targets at the SWAN Zone at Mount Elliott and secondary copper Mount Dore prospect, followed by geophysical surveys and drilling at numerous other prospects. During a step-out drilling program at Mount Dore, the high-grade Merlin molybdenum & rhenium deposit was discovered.

Production began at the Osborne project in February 2012, with mining commencing at the Osborne and Kulthor underground mines.

Production at the Starra 276 underground mine commenced in March 2013, with full ramp up expected during the second quarter, 2013.

The Selwyn Line shear hosted FeOx-Cu-Au mines (the 222, 244, 251, 257 and 276 mines).

Historically these mines exploited the high gold portions of the mineralized system and produced 6.84mt @ 2.1% Cu and 4.6g/t Au. However these deposits formed part of a larger pre-mining global resource of 95.1mt @ 0.74% Cu and 1.11g/t Au using a 0.5% eCu cut off (Sleigh 2002).



The Selwyn Line comprises an intensely alkali-iron-silica-carbonate altered section of the Starra shear zone, which is host to multiple high grade gold-copper shoots (Figure 3). These shoots are developed in structural loci within a larger copper-gold mineralized tabular system (Kary and Harley 1992; Sleigh 2002). The Starra shear here separates calcic psammites and siltstones of the Staveley Formation (Mary Kathleen Group) in the east, from the Answer Slate and Gin Creek gneiss complex to the west.



In the vicinity of the Selwyn Line the Starra shear is interpreted as an early ductile-brittle (regional D1 age) decollement zone (Blake 1987 and Laing et al. 1989), overprinted by vertical to steeply eastward dipping, north-south trending D2 and local D4 age shearing.

Mineral List

20 valid minerals.