PERTH (miningweekly.com) – Gold hopeful Kingwest Resources has cleared the last hurdle to the start of production at its Menzies gold project, in Western Australia, signing a toll milling agreement with gold miner St Barbara.
“It is fantastic to receive confirmation from St Barbara that our Selkirk ore will be processed at the Leonora operations, located approximately 100 km north of our Menzies gold project via the sealed Goldfields highway,” said Kingwest executive chairperson Greg Bittar.
“We are excited that Kingwest will now be moving into production with our joint venture (JV) partners and hope to capitalise on the extraordinary Australian gold price, which is nearly A$$3 000/oz.”
The plan is to mine the high-grade Selkirk deposit via a cutback of an existing pit. Mining operations are planned to start with a fleet of 100 t rigid dump trucks for initial waste movement, with a smaller fleet of 40 t trucks and a smaller excavator to reduce ore loss and dilution associated with ore mining activities.
JV partner BML Ventures will be responsible for all capital costs, mining and haulage, while profits will be split on an even basis upon the reconciliation of gold sales and project costs.