JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – The openpit resources at the Ravenswood mine, in Queensland, could help return the operation to its former glory, said gold miner Resolute’s MD and CEO, John Welborn, on Tuesday.

The ASX-listed Resolute had been working on a plan to extend Ravenswood’s operating life beyond the Mt Wright underground mine, which would be closed next year, putting 280 jobs on the line.

“The available openpit resources at Ravenswood constitute a major, and greatly underappreciated, asset of Resolute. The 1.2-million-ounce ore reserve and 2.6-million-ounce mineral resource are located immediately adjacent to our large openpit mill and process plant, which requires only minor reconfiguration to return to its former five-million-tonne-a-year capacity,” Welborn said, announcing that openpit operations would start at the Nolans East pit next month.

The Nolans East pit was an extension of the historic Sarsfield-Nolans pit, which was mined until 2009 prior to the commissioning of the underground mine at Mt Wright.

Prior to developing the underground mine, Resolute operated Ravenswood at five-million tonnes a year by mining the low-grade Sarsfield orebody.

“We are hugely excited about the possibility of returning to the Sarsfield openpit operations with new vigour, innovation and skill sets…,” said Welborn.

The new mining operations at Nolans East would comprise an extraction of 2.7-million tonnes at 0.8 g/t of gold over a 15-month period. The ore would be processed at the adjacent Nolans processing plant, which would be reconfigured from its current 1.5-million-tonnes-a-year capacity to 2.8-million tonnes a year. The operation required only a modest additional upfront capital spend of A$5-million.

Mining at Nolans East would be the first stage of the Ravenswood Extension Project (REP), which was currently in the feasibility study stage. The study was examining the potential for a large openpit development with mining of the Sarsfield and Buck Reef West deposits, which would follow once operations concluded at Nolans East in October 2017.

Resolute reported that the REP would use a number of innovative approaches to mine scheduling, tailings management, wastewater treatment and openpit practices to minimise capital costs.

The decision to start production from Nolans East had allowed Resolute to implement a hedging programme to manage risks during the transition from underground to large scale openpit operations. The company had sold forward 36 000 oz at an average price of A$1 800/oz.