Cannington Mine facts for kids
| Location | |
|---|---|
| State | Queensland |
| Country | Australia |
| Production | |
| Products | |
| Type | Underground |
| History | |
| Opened | 1997 |
| Owner | |
| Company | South32 |
The Cannington Silver and Lead Mine is an underground mine in north-west Queensland, Australia. It's located about 200 kilometres (124 mi) southeast of Mount Isa. This mine is famous because it supplied silver for the Sydney 2000 Summer Olympics and the Beijing 2008 Summer Olympics medals! The mine gets its name from a nearby farming property called Cannington.
Contents
Where is the Cannington Mine?
The Cannington mine is found on a wide, flat plain. There are a few low, flat-topped hills called mesas around. Rivers flow across this plain, but they are usually dry for most of the year. Sometimes, though, they can flood.
The area is quite dry, getting only about 250 millimetres (9.84 in) of rain each year. Most of this rain falls between November and March. The mine itself is located where the Hamilton River and Trepell Creek meet.
How the Mine Was Found
The Cannington mine was discovered by a company called BHP in 1990. Scientists used a special air survey to look for certain types of rocks underground. They knew that similar rocks in other places often had valuable minerals.
This survey helped them find the Cannington area. After that, they drilled into the ground to confirm that there were indeed lots of silver and lead hidden deep below.
What Minerals Are Found?
The main minerals found at Cannington are galena (which is a lead ore) and sphalerite (which is a zinc ore). The valuable silver is mostly found in a mineral called freibergite. It's also mixed in with the galena.
Mining Operations at Cannington
Mining at Cannington began in 1997, but it took until early 1999 to reach full production. In that first year, they processed 1.5 million tons of ore. Since then, the mine has grown to process about 3 million tons of ore every year.
Around 2010, Cannington was known as the largest and cheapest silver and lead mine in the world. It is expected to keep producing minerals for about 25 years in total.
Who Owns and Runs the Mine?
In 2014, the company BHP decided to split into two companies. The Cannington Mine became part of a new company called South32.
Mine Facilities and Workers
The mine site can be reached by road from McKinlay. It also has its own private airport called Trepell Airport. There's a small village on site for the mine workers. It has many rooms for short stays and longer village rooms. The dining hall serves about 67,000 meals each month!
Around 600 people work at the mine, plus another 300 to 400 contractors. Many of the workers, about 70%, travel to the mine by plane from Townsville. This is called "fly-in fly-out" (FIFO) work.
The mine also has a large 3 megawatt solar farm. This solar farm helps power the accommodation village and the airport. Any extra electricity helps with the mining and processing work. Using solar power helps reduce the amount of greenhouse gases released into the air. It's expected to prevent between 4,000 and 6,000 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions each year.
