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36 www.resourceworld.com A U G U S T / S E P T E M B E R 2 0 1 8 B ased in Melbourne, Australia, multina- tional mining company OceanaGold Corp. [OGC-TSX, ASX; OGDCF-OTC] has been pouring gold from its Haile Gold Mine in South Carolina since January 2017 with first commercial production in October 2017. The company expects to continue pro- ducing gold for at least 13 more years with an average annual production of 189,000 ounces per year. Even after two centuries of intermittent mining, this rich pay dirt still has more gold to give. Resource World participated in a guest tour of Haile gold mine on April 30, 2018. The tour began at the visitor centre and museum in the old railroad station in Kershaw, South Carolina, where on the previous Saturday, Haile gold mine had hosted 2,000 members of the community for Gold Rush Day, complete with gold panning led by Haile team members. Ever since gold was discovered in the Carolina Slate Belt in 1799, gold fever has risen and fallen with the economic tide, but never completely disappeared for the Haile Mine in South Carolina. In 1827, gold was first gathered from Captain Benjamin Haile's property in Lancaster County dur- ing land clearing for growing Carolina rice. From 1827 to 1862, about $1 million worth of gold was produced, mainly from placer deposits. Then the 1849 California Gold Rush refocused much of investors' interest in gold mining away from the east coast. Conflicts in the American Civil War destroyed the workings at the Haile prop- erty. In 1880, a New York group took up the challenge of rejuvenating the Haile gold mine by hiring a German scientist to develop a new gold-extraction process. From 1880 to 1910 the Haile Mine was the largest gold mine in the United States east of the Mississippi River, as it is again today. Three different New York groups invested in the Haile property during the mid-1900s, a but WWII orders and poor economic times didn't help. Modern mineral explorationists started to take a renewed interest in the 1970s and fol- lowing. For instance, Piedmont Mining Company produced some gold from the Haile Gold Mine in 1985 and minted gold coins, but operations ceased in the 1990s. Eventually, Canadian company Romarco Minerals moved forward with exploration and permit applications during their ten- ure of 2007 to 2015. Mining permits were fast-tracked and obtained in a remarkable seven years, partly due to a welcoming state economy and partly to the company's demonstrated commitment to community and long-term environmental stewardship. In 2015, OceanaGold merged with Romarco and assumed operation of Haile Mine, producing its first gold of the 21st century. The company controls 14,765 acres of property, including the 4,552- acre mine site. Investment in the Haile Mine since 2007 has been almost $800 mil- lion. It looks like a lot, but the benefits to OceanaGold and the state of South Carolina and Lancaster County are expected to prove worth it. South Carolina receives direct tax reve- nue of $6.4 million annually from the Haile gold mine. In addition, wider economic impact to the state is $191 million annu- ally with $87 million of that in Lancaster County. Projected through 2032, statewide economic impact is estimated at $3.7 bil- lion. That is about one-tenth of the total economic impact of all mining in South Carolina, reported at $1.17 billion in a recent study of natural resources. Of the 500 active mining permits in South Carolina, the Haile Mine is the only one for gold – most are for industrial mate- rials. Our tour traveled by truck into the centre of the mining operation, where Mill Zone open pit (one of eight planned pits) has been dug from an elevation of more than 500 feet above sea level down to about sea level. We could see several 100- ton and 150-ton trucks being loaded with 25-ton scoops (all the heavy equipment is Caterpillar) near a blasted wall of foliated gray rock with rusty streaks. Host rock for gold is a fine-grained quartzite containing pyrite and other sulfides as well as dis- seminated gold. Disseminated gold is being mined and OceanaGold revitalizes South Carolina's Haile Gold Mine by Jennifer S. Getsinger, PhD, PGeo An aerial view of OceanaGold's Haile Gold Mine in South Carolina. Photo courtesy OceanaGold Corp. FIELD REPORT