PERTH (miningweekly.com) – Gold developer Excelsior Gold has awarded an openpit mining contract to Hampton Transport Services at its Kalgoorlie North project, in Western Australia.
Openpit mining was expected to start on November 16, with initial tonnes expected from the Castlereagh and Jackorite openpits, which along with the Big Blow South and large Zoroastrian Central openpits, would provide 1.36-million tonnes of ore for treatment at the Paddington mill, starting in December.
Excelsior said on Monday that it would review contract extensions to cover the mining of the other deposits prior to the scheduled start of mining in 2018.
The company recently signed a new ore treatment agreement at the Kalgoorlie North project with gold miner Norton Gold Fields, which would process an initial allocation of up to 2.9-million tonnes of ore at a minimum rate of 500 000 t/y over a five-year-and-ten-month period.
Excelsior had also been granted five yearly options, each to extend the processing agreement by an additional 12 months, providing that a potential 5.4-million tonnes of Excelsior ore could be processed at the Paddington mill, over a ten-year-and-ten-month period.
The company said on Monday that clearing of the 20 km haul road connecting the gold deposits to the Paddington mill was well advanced, which would facilitate the mobilisation of the mining fleet.