Name: Kalgoorlie Super Pit.

Location: The mine is located adjacent to the town of Kalgoorlie about 550 km east of Perth, Western Australia.

Controlling Company: The Fimiston openpit (Super Pit) is managed by Kalgoorlie Consolidated Gold Mines (KCGM) and owned (50:50) by Newmont Australia and Barrick Australia Pacific.

Brief History: Gold was first discovered in Kalgoorlie in 1893. Years later, businessman Alan Bond started buying up the individual leases to create one big company and one big pit, from which gold could be extracted at far less cost. Bond's company failed to complete the takeover but, in 1989, the entire area was combined. KCGM was formed to manage the assets and operations of joint venture (JV) partners Normandy Australia and Homestake Gold of Australia. All leases and infrastructure of the Golden Mile, Mt Charlotte and Mt Percy had been brought together. KCGM continued to manage the operation for Newmont and Barrick Gold when the JV partners changed. Their ownership includes the Super Pit, the Mt Charlotte underground mine, the Fimiston mill and the Gidji roaster.

Brief Description: The Super Pit is the biggest openpit gold mine in Australia. It produces up to 850 000 oz/y of gold and its operation far outweighs any other mining centre in Australia. The Super Pit has absorbed the Judd, South, Paringa, Croesus/Eclipse, Central, Brownhill, Drysdale, Morrison, North and Horseshoe pits. Other shafts located within the current Super Pit include Main, Croesus, Chaffers, Lake View and Perseverance.

Geology/Mineralisation: Most of the gold mined in the Super Pit occurs within ore lodes formed by ancient shears in a rock unit called the Golden Mile dolerite. The more than 2 000 ore lodes that occur within the Golden Mile dolerite are found in an area of more than 5 km in strike and 2 km in width and occur to a depth of more than 1 km.

The ore lodes vary in size, from centimetres up to several hundred metres in length and dip. All the lodes that can be economically mined from the Superpit must exceed 10 m in length and 6 m in length.

Reserves: Total proven and probable reserves as at December 31, 2013, were 101.18-million tons grading at 0.037 g/t of gold.

Resources: Total mineral resources as at December 31, 2013, were 27.76-million tons grading 0.043 g/t of gold.

Products: Gold.

Mining Method: Kalgoorlie is an openpit, truck-and-loader operation. Traditional underground mining methods have extracted much of the high-grade ore in the Fimiston openpit area; however, huge quantities of low-grade material remain in haloes around the orebodies under the Golden Mile. It is these haloes that are being mined in the openpit.

Major Infrastructure and Equipment: Ore delivered from the Super Pit is processed through two treatment plants – the Fimiston plant and Gidji roaster – at KCGM.

Ore is treated at the Fimiston mill, with the resulting sulphide concentrates then roasted and leached at the Gidji roaster, located about 20 km north of the main Kalgoorlie operations. Gold-laden carbon from the Gidji roaster is also processed at the Fimiston mill. Concentrates that cannot be processed by the roaster is treated by two ultrafine grinding mills.

Prospects: KCGM announced plans in February, which will result in the Super Pit continuing to process gold until about 2029, extending the mineral processing life of the mine by eight years.

In 2009, KCGM plans indicated that mining in the Fimiston openpit would continue until 2019 and the processing of gold until 2021.

The extension to the life-of-mine is a result of the inclusion of processing low-grade stockpiles, which were deemed a mining reserve in 2012, in accordance with the National Instrument 43-101 reporting standard.

KCGM continues to look for opportunities to extend the mine’s life.

Contact Person: KCGM community relations superintendent.

Contact Details:
KCGM
Tel +61 8 9022 1809
Fax +61 8 9022 1331
Email jniemand@kalgold.com.au
Website http://www.superpit.com.au