Gold mining at Agnew commenced in the early 1900s, with mining being carried out by East Murchison United,[3] EMU, which gave the mine its original name, the EMU mine, as well as a company owned by Claude de Bernales.[4]
Western Mining (WMC) acquired the mining tenements in the early 1980s, opening an open cut mine and process plant there in 1986, near the town of Agnew. At this point the town, which had once had a population in the thousands, just consisted of a run-down hotel, the near-by newly-established mining town of Leinster serving the Leinster Nickel Mine. When WMC acquired the Leinster mine in 1989 and renamed it Leinster Nickel Operations, the gold mine at Agnew became the Leinster Gold Operations, with both operations sharing a number of facilities.[4]
In 1990, underground mining at Agnew commenced. In 1994, WMC restructured its organisation and separated the gold and nickel operations, with the gold mine becoming the Agnew Gold Operation.[4][5] A second gold mine in the area, the Lawlers Gold Mine, was operated by Barrick Gold, until purchased by Gold Fields in October 2013.[6][7]
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.[8][9]
The mine was purchased by Goldfields from WMC in late 2001.[10][11] 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, in 2009, employed 114 permanent staff and 298 contractors.[2]
A 4 MW solar farm was added in 2019,[12] along with a 17 MW wind farm and a 13MW/4MWh battery,[13] supplying half the mine's power needs.[14]
^"East Murchison United". Coolgardie Miner. Vol. 4, no. 1032. Western Australia. 1 April 1898. p. 7. Retrieved 17 March 2023 – via National Library of Australia.
