Agnew Gold Mine

The Agnew Gold Mine, formerly the Emu Mine, is a gold mine located 3km west of Agnew, Western Australia. It is owned by the South African mining company Gold Fields. It is one of two mines the company operates in Australia, the other being the St Ives Gold Mine.Ore is mined at Agnew in the under ground Waroonga complex and the open pit Songvang operation.HistoryWestern Mining - WMC, discovered the Agnew gold deposit in the early 1980s. A second gold mine in the area, the Lawlers Gold Mine, is operated by Barrick Gold.On 13 June 1989 the mine, then called the Emu mine, was the scene of one of the worst mining disasters in Western Australia when six workers drowned in the underground operations during a flood.The mine was purchased by Goldfields from WMC in late 2001. The combined price for the two Australian operations Goldfields purchased, St Ives and Agnew, was US$180 million in cash and $52 million in Gold Fields shares.Agnew, as of 2009, employees 114 permanent staff and 298 contractors.ProductionAnnual production of the mine:Sources The Australian Mines Handbook: 2003-2004 Edition, Louthean Media Pty Ltd, Editor: Ross Louthean Western Australian Mineral and Petroleum Statistics Digest 2008 Page 34: Principal Mineral and Petroleum Producers - Gold