Miner on road to world class status

THE mining company proposing a $150 million expansion at Ravenswood has begun the first stage of a project expected to create one of Australia’s largest gold mines.

Resolute Mining announced yesterday that the first stage of its Ravenswood Expansion Project had started and a final investment decision on the full project was expected late this year.

Stage one includes the recommissioning of a third grinding mill at its Nolans processing plant to return annual production to about 5 million tonnes of ore, yielding 80,000 ounces of gold a year.

Resolute CEO John Welborn said recommissioning the mill was the first step in the eventual upgrading of the plant to support the expansion project.

“Increasing the plant capacity at Ravenswood to its historical rate of five million tonnes per annum and using this capacity to process available low grade stockpiles will deliver an immediate cashflow positive, profitable mining operation at Ravenswood,” Mr Welborn said.

“As a result, this solution allows Resolute to focus on the ultimate transformation of Ravenswood into a large-scale, low-cost tier one Australian gold mining operation with an exceptional long mine life.”

Three mills had operated up to 2011 when mining from Ravenswood’s Sarsfield open pit was suspended to exclusively process material from the nearby Mount Wright underground mine.

Now Resolute is planning to redevelop the Sarsfield pit and another large open pit, Buck Reef West, at Ravenswood.

It will require an investment of about $150 million and secure 380 jobs — 280 in production and 100 in construction — when the operations had been threatened with closure.

The company said recommissioning the Nolans mill would allow it to process greater volumes of low-grade material stockpiled during previous open pit operations at Sarsfield.

Beneficiation, using a combination of contract crushing and screening and owner-operated facilities, meant grades could be lifted from 0.4 grams per tonne to five or 6 grams.

Mr Welborn said the beneficiation was a game-changer for Ravenswood.

“With almost three million ounces of gold in ore reserves, the company is now directing its ongoing study work to focus on an optimised expansion project that can produce 200,000 ounces annually over a 15-year mine life,” Mr Welborn said.