IM 2020 September 20 | Page 5

Editorial Director
Paul Moore B.Sc (Hons), M.Sc.
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THE LEADER VOLUME 15 • NUMBER 9
Super Pit's golden future
CGM is a world famous large, high quality, long-life
open-pit and underground gold mine located in the
Krenowned Golden Mile Region of Kalgoorlie-
Boulder, Western Australia, with the open pit often
referred to simply as the Super Pit.
Some 465,000 oz of gold was produced in the 2020
financial year, making it one of the largest gold mines in
Australia. The Golden Mile has produced more than 65
Moz of gold to date.
In November 2019, Saracen Mineral Holdings purchased
Barrick’s 50% stake in KCGM. In January 2020, Newmont
sold its 50% share of the operations to Northern Star
Resources. The new KCGM JV is now 100% Australianowned.
The KCGM JV recently announced the results of a
strategic review carried out since the ownership change.
The in-depth review has established KCGM as a long-life
asset with a growing production profile and significant
exploration upside, all in a Tier 1 location. KCGM’s
outstanding future is underpinned by JORC compliant
reserves of 9.7 Moz (after depletion of 293,000 oz) and
JORC compliant resources of 19 Moz.
This landmark reserve provides an extended mine life
visibility of 15 years, with significant exploration upside
which points to further growth.
Despite just over six months of new ownership, KCGM is
already benefiting from the increased focus. On top of the
reserve and resource feats, the owners have:
n Improved open-pit productivities (49% improvement in
total material movement in the recent June quarter);
n Improved underground mining productivities (25%
improvement in mined ore tonnes in the recent June
quarter);
n Provided a lower risk and lower cost East Wall
remediation strategy; and
n Improved processing productivities and lower unit costs
(6% and 16%, respectively, in the recent June quarter).
Production will rise to over 500,000 oz/y by FY2024
(post-remediation and as Fimiston South becomes
dominant ore source and access to high grade Golden Pike
North is restored), before climbing to over 675,000 oz/y by
FY2028.
A transformation of the open-pit operations is
underway. Six months ago, only two small and inefficient
cutbacks were available to mine. Today, there are three
mining areas available to the shovel and truck fleets
(Golden Pike South, Morrison and Oroya Brownhill (OBH)),
with a fourth (Fimiston South Stage 1) scheduled to come
online in the first half of 2021. These new cutbacks will
boost mining productivities, improve costs, and ensure
higher grades are delivered to the mill by displacing lower
grade stockpile feed. New ownership is targeting mining
material movements of 70-80 Mt/y, a significant
improvement over recent years.
A mining fleet renewal program will further enhance
operational efficiencies by ensuring the timely
replacement of some of the current mining fleet that is
coming towards the end of its productive life. A new
equipment tender is currently underway to source new
equipment from reputable manufacturers. It is the JV
owners’ intentions to lease finance the equipment over the
useable life of the fleet. Major new mining equipment
slated for delivery during FY21 includes a Komatsu PC8000
shovel and four 240 t trucks.
A recruitment campaign has recently been launched to
attract open-pit operators to Kalgoorlie to enable the
expansion of material movement to 70-80 Mt/y to take
place. A 300 t excavator has been mobilised to site and has
been commissioned in the OBH mining front. The
excavator has the capability of mining narrower cutback
areas in OBH more productively and being more selective
during ore mining, minimising dilution and ore loss.
The new Fimiston open-pit production profile consists
of several large mining areas, aiming to consistently
maximise fleet productivity. Fimiston South, located at the
southern end of the Super Pit, will
be KCGM’s single largest cutback
in a decade, with a circa-10:1 strip
ratio and circa-850 Mt total
material movement.
A two stage, 12-year mine life
is planned. Stage 1 will
commence in the second half of
FY2021, and Stage 2 will
commence in FY2023. Stage 1 has
received full regulatory approval
from the relevant government authorities, while the
application for Stage 2 has been submitted for approval.
The staged approach will accelerate access to an earlier
ore stream for the Fimiston mill, and appropriately smooth
the capital cost of the waste pre-strip across several years,
the partners say. On current plans, FY2022 and FY2023 will
be the largest years of waste pre-stripping.
Mining is also underway in the new Morrison cutback.
This is effectively the Fimiston South starter pit and will
ultimately be encompassed by the much larger Fimiston
South cutback.
The 12-year mine plan at Fimiston South is the reward
from a substantial investment in exploration over the last
three years. Drilling has targeted the highly continuous
mineralised shear zones hosted in the Golden Mile
Dolerite and the Paringa Basalt, which remain open in all
directions. Infill drilling completed in recent months has
provided the confidence to report the JORC compliant
reserves.
Golden Pike is a priority mining front, due to high
grades (reserves 25 Mt at 2 g/t) and low strip ratio
(average 2.9:1). Although this is the deepest open pit
working area at circa-600 m below surface, it benefits from
the investment made by previous owners. The waste prestripping
at Golden Pike has been completed in the
preceding circa-10 years.
Mining continues at the Golden Pike South cutback,
whilst the Golden Pike North cutback will commence in
FY2024 once the East Wall remediation work is completed
under the new OBH plan. The open-pit mining schedule
from Golden Pike has been slowed down, compared with
previous owners.
The new plan has Golden Pike South finishing in
FY2024 (previously FY2021) and Golden Pike North being
mined from FY2024 to FY2029 (previously FY2024 to
FY2026). Opportunities to fast track mining in these areas
will be assessed, but not at the detriment of quality ore
mining.
OBH has an open pit JORC compliant reserve of 15 Mt at
1.5 g/t for 710,000 oz. Mining of the OBH cutback
commenced in March 2020, following a comprehensive
review of various east wall remediation strategies for the
May 2018 slip. Eight years of mining is currently planned in
two stages, with an average strip ratio of 9.0:1 (including
pre-strip) at an average grade of 1.5 g/t. Under new
ownership, KCGM has devised a new wall remediation plan
(OBH) that involves bringing the Brownhill cutback forward
in the schedule (mining already underway), pushing the
northeast wall back by circa-80-100 m, and integrating the
east wall remediation zone with the Brownhill cutback.
Previously the Brownhill cutback was a smaller,
standalone cutback not scheduled until 2022.
Finally looking at underground, since January 2020,
over 23,000 m of diamond drilling has been completed
across the Mt Charlotte mine area. This new data coupled
with the existing historic data has delineated several
exciting opportunities including Mt Ferrum, Kal East and
Little Wonder. These opportunities are all accessible from
existing Mt Charlotte infrastructure via the Sam Pearce
decline and/or the Cassidy shaft, and will be the focus of
ongoing exploration and growth.
Paul Moore
Editorial Director
[e-mail]
SEPTEMBER 2020 | International Mining 3