Even though recent production results for Gold Fields’ Australian mine, St Ives, were below par, the goal remains to quickly move the mine back to being a 500 000-oz/y producer of gold, said Gold Fields Australasian executive vice-president Glenn Baldwin.

The St Ives gold mine has experienced increased production from June 2008, which was dominated by discoveries at Athena and Hamlet, extending the life- of-mine by a further 12 months following a year of continued exploration success.

Baldwin said that the Athena discovery would significantly contribute to the transformation of St Ives. The Athena camp currently boasts ten projects, two are overtaking the definition stage, four are resource growth projects and the remaining four are resource conversion projects.

The four later-stage projects that have been discovered relatively recently include Athena, Hamlet, Apollo and Diana.

“The Gold Fields board approved an early, accelerated start programme for Athena based on the compelling geology and conceptual study details.

“In fact, in one year, the company changed Athena from being a newly discovered resource in 2008 to a reserve with more than 300 000 oz of gold in 2009.”

For an initial investment of $95-million, Gold Fields will produce first ore in less than one year, and look to a life-of-mine in excess of ten years.

“Our focus on exploration has led to the successful discovery of the Athena camp and, at times, we had four diamond-drill rigs lined up side by side to bring the discovery into production as quickly as possible.”

Baldwin says that Athena is not the only project in the Athena camp that will see production in the near future. “Even though the metrics for Athena are com- pelling, it does not yet include the potential of the Hamlet site, and we are developing an openpit right now.” The options for Hamlet will be determined by the end of this financial year.

“The Apollo project has been known for some time as a mineralised area, but, using information gained from the Athena drilling, it has grown and developed rapidly. The openpit will start producing in the second half of this financial year,” said Baldwin.

The goal of the Athena camp is to double the resource in size as quickly as possible, and then ensure that St Ives has a life-of-mine beyond 2020.

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