Environmental and Cultural Heritage

We believe in Responsible Mining

As a company, we’re committed to protecting and preserving the lands on which we operate. As such, we recognise that our exploration and future mining activities are associated with a range of potential environmental impacts.

It means we’re committed to environmental stewardship and act to minimise impacts on biodiversity and land degradation. We achieve this by committing adequate time and resources into baseline studies to identify environmental values and any impacts on them and undertake action to minimise these impacts to a level as low as reasonably practicable.

We focus on realising and maximising value at existing brownfields sites. This means that we usually operate in areas where our actions create minimal additional impact to the environment.

This means we’re aware of areas of cultural and heritage importance and treat them with respect.

A region rich in mining history

At the Kal East Gold Project the Myhree Mining Centre is located 3km north west of the historic Bulong townsite and has the exciting potential of bringing gold mining back to what is now known as a ghost town.

It’s a townsite that’s steeped in rich mining history, and a significance that’s definitely not lost on us. A key part of our stakeholder engagement process is that we’ll continue to work with relevant stakeholders, including the City of Kalgoorlie-Boulder and Eastern Goldfields Historical Society, to ensure its important history is preserved.

Gold was discovered at Bulong in August 1893. Formerly known as the “I.O.U”, the gold was discovered by Jack Moher and Wimbah, an Aboriginal man from the Pilbara region who was also known by the name Tiger. By 1896 the town and its surrounding mines had an estimated population of 2,000 people. The discovery of deep alluvial gold in ancient riverbeds (‘Deep leads’) in 1898 saw the town boom, and thousands of prospectors and miners converged on the district.

The largest and most productive mine at Bulong was The Queen Margaret.

Along with other smaller-scale, high-grade gold mines, it contributed an overall total of approximately 150,000 ounces of gold produced in the area.

By 1910 the larger mines had closed.

By the mid-1930s, the town had drifted into a decline that saw Bulong virtually become a ghost town. Sporadic prospecting activity occurred throughout the years, but it wasn’t until 1980 that interest was renewed, when a new company called The Queen Margaret Gold Mines NL (in joint venture with Spargos Exploration NL) undertook mapping and exploration work. They refurbished the old main shaft, with the view to reopening the underground workings—but the work was abandoned when the shaft re-flooded.

Today, the town is back to being a ghost town.

All that remains at Bulong are two cemeteries, some building debris, an obelisk at the centre of the old town, and numerous old shafts both north and south of the Bulong intersection.

Our Environmental Policy

Our Environment Policy outlines our commitment to minimise our impact on the environment by integrating environmental management considerations into our lifecycle of exploration, development, operation, rehabilitation, and mine closure.

We have recently completed all environmental studies and approvals processes for a fully permitted mining operation located at the Kal East Gold Project. Technical studies are currently underway to support the development of the Paulsens and Coyote Gold Operations and the required approvals for recommencing operations at both sites.

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