The Henty Mine is located in Tasmania's rugged west, about 30 kilometres (km) north of the famous and historic copper mining town of Queenstown. Other nearby towns are the mining towns of Rosebery and Zeehan, and the Hydro Tasmania village of Tullah.
The Henty Mine sits within a mine lease that has an area of 1,453 hectares (ha). Of this, about 153 ha (or 10.5%) is used for the facilities and structures needed for mining and processing ore.
Access to the mine is via an unsealed road constructed by Hydro Tasmania to service the nearby Anthony Hydro-Electric Power Scheme.
The mine and mill sites sit in a valley in the rugged West Coast Range, between a mountain called The Gooseneck to the east, and Mt Read to the west. The site is immediately adjacent to the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area, which covers much of the state's pristine and mountainous south-western and central areas.
The rugged landscape in the Henty area.
The Henty Gold Mine is known as "the mine under the rainforest" because the mine workings are surrounded by cool temperate rainforest, containing many Australian native plant and animal species, some of which are only found in Tasmania. Tasmania's rainforests are extremely fragile, and hundreds of years old. Uncontrolled disturbance can result in damage to the rainforest which could take thousands of years to repair naturally.
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The famous Huon Pine (left), King Billy Pine (centre) and Pandanus (right) - three Tasmanian native plants found in the Henty area. |
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| The Rosella (left), Platypus (centre) and Masked Owl (right) are found in the forests around Henty. | ||
The mine site lies within the catchment of the Henty River. The rivers in this catchment flow into Lake Henty, which is an artificial lake formed by a series of dams that comprise the Anthony Hydro-Electric Power Scheme. The rivers in the area are pristine wild rivers, renowned internationally for trout fishing and other "wilderness"-type activities. For this reason, the mine has a strict water management plan to prevent contamination of the natural environment.
An artificial lake in the mountainous landscape near the Henty Mine.
Tasmania's west coast is famous for its wild weather as well as its wild scenery. Average annual rainfall at Henty is about 3.4 metres. The winters are cold and wet, with occasional heavy snowfalls, and the summers may be quite warm.
The data in this climate graph was obtained at Rosebery, not far from Henty Mine. Climatic data from many stations around Australia are available from the Australian Bureau of Meteorology.
Henty Mine workers demonstrating their snow-boarding skills after heavy snowfalls in the Henty area.
