Slate Grocery REIT T.SGR

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Old mines worth a look in commodities boom By PETER GOSNELL October 17, 2005 THE mineral commodities boom is reviving interest in old mines that have long lain dormant. Sparkers ... Don Crowe, left, and Peter Kennewell with diamonds from the reopened Monte Christo mine at Bingara From the Central West, across to the Northern Tablelands and down through the Hunter Valley to the southern coalfields, abandoned mine workings are being re-appraised by companies large and small. At Bingara, about 100km north of Tamworth, ore taken from an old shaft at the historic Monte Christo mine has yielded sufficient diamonds to encourage the mine's operator, Cluff Resources, to press on. In the 1800s, the Monte Christo mine was operated by "Captain" Charles Rogers, who made a packet extracting large numbers of tiny stones from the rich ore. Cluff hopes to find diamond bearing lodes nearby that the old timers missed. Further west at Cobar, Cobar Management, a subsidiary of Swiss commodities trader Glencore, is extracting copper and silver from the CSA mine. CSA's history goes back to 1871. Since then it has shut and then re-opened numerous times as fluctuating commodity prices dictate the viability of the mine's operations. More money is also pouring into the Central West's numerous derelict gold workings. At Hill End, Hill End Gold has for some years been working to resurrect the famous quarter mile, a stretch of land once known as the richest quarter mile in the world for the amount of gold it yielded.