Challenger gold mine in South Australia's Far North proves to be a winner The original surveyor of the Challenger mine, Dave Edgecombe, with a 2000-million-year-old core sample. CHALLENGER was a tough hound who beat a death sentence and had a spirit that seems to have been handed on to the mine that was named in his honour. It's a gold mine, deep in the remote South Australian desert, that has come close to an end many times but now has poured its millionth ounce of gold, or more than a billion dollars worth of the precious metal. Challenger was a kelpie cross labrador bought by market gardeners in the Adelaide Hills to guard their property. "They called him Challenger because he was going to be a savage watchdog," said David Edgecombe. But he had other ideas. Challenger realised if he snapped his chain he could nip across to visit the Edgecombes on the neighbouring property for a feed and affection. Eventually the market gardeners came up with an ultimatum to the Edgecombes - take the dog or he gets shot. So, Challenger became Mr Edgecombe's companion, travelling with the geologist wherever he could, surviving falling off utes and the adventures of a bush dog. Challenger Gold Mine general manager Steve Jeffers with a bar worth $990,000. Picture: Mike Burton In May 1995, Mr Edgecombe found himself at a spot 250km north of Ceduna. Rough exploration had identified it as prospective for gold. Yearning for home and the hound he'd had to leave behind because of fox baits, Mr Edgecombe named the site Challenger. Now was the moment of truth - time to plunge a drill into the 2.5 billion-year-old rocks, some of the oldest on the planet. "These were originally sedimentary rocks but a lot's happened over that time," Mr Edgecombe said. They've been buried several kilometres deep, they've been squeezed, they've been heated, they've been folded, brought back to the surface. Now they're high-grade metamorphic rocks. Somewhere along the way, little flecks of gold found their way into the mix - just a few grams per tonne - and when the team drilled their sixth and seventh holes they hit enough to make a mine worthwhile. The Challenger Gold Mine with the open cut section leading to the underground shafts (circular hole), tailing dam and processing plant. It had been a search for a very small needle in a very large haystack, using a pattern of testing near-surface earth over some 8500 square km to look for telltale traces of gold which had probably been sucked to the surface by tree roots. The numbers stacked up, and in December 2002, the Challenger Gold Mine was formally opened. The owners estimated it would produce about 100,000 ounces of gold over 20 months. Then they'd pack up and leave with $14 million in the pocket. But the desert treasure has exceeded all expectations, and mine owner Kingsgate hopes it will continue to defy the odds. The gold price has fallen close to the cost of production which averaged $US1167/oz in the September quarter. Kingsgate has responded by lowering costs through cutting workers" wages, squeezing suppliers and using contractor Byrnecut to make the mining operation more efficient. Kingsgate acting chief executive officer Tim Benfield said Challenger has a known life ahead of at least 12 months at current prices - but there were good expectations beyond that. "Challenger has lived up to its name, it has been a challenge," he said. The Challenger gold mine was named after geologist Dave Edgecombe's kelpie dog 'Challenger' . Picture: Dave Edgecombe It's given me my fair share of sleepless nights (wondering whether it could keep going). But over the past six months it seems to have turned a corner. Everybody knows we're in a tough market but everybody's risen to the challenge. Mr Benfield said the short estimate of only a year's future mine life was typical of the type of deposit. Exploration was one step at a time looking for a few grams of gold trapped in thin veins of host material using underground drills set up in tunnels dug from previous campaigns. Each step led to the next and kept pushing the horizon further out, perhaps for decades. "At this gold price it's a small margin but we are making money," he said. With 210 workers, shareholders, suppliers and a State Government hungry for royalties involved in the mine's future, there are plenty of people hoping he's right. "Out of this little footprint we have here, every year we've been pumping $100 million into the Australian economy," mine general manager Stephen Jeffers said. The majority of that is in SA, including $4 million directly into state coffers. Kingsgate director Peter Alexander, who has been with the venture since its start under previous owners Dominion, said camaraderie and the miners" culture of having-a-go had seen it through the cycles of gold price changes and geological surprises such as the gold-rich veins suddenly shifting on a fault line. "When we came out here there were that many disbelievers saying we couldn't do it," he said. The company's share price was 23c - and at the height of the mine so far it was $7.80. And a lot of the staff out here participated in it. That was one of the benefits, apart from the $40 million that's gone into the State Government. Stakeholders who were here actually had the opportunity to share in the wealth. The author and photographer visited Challenger as guests of Kingsgate