Newmont CEO Gary Goldberg says the new underground mine serves as a platform to further explore the Twins Creek deposit.
NYSE-listed gold major Newmont Mining has achieved commercial production at its Twin Creeks underground expansion project, adding higher grade, lower cost gold production at its Twin Creeks operation, in Nevada.
The Twin Creeks underground mine will add between 30 000 oz/y and 40 000 oz/y at all-in sustaining costs of between $650/oz and $750/oz for its first five years of production.
The new ore will also allow Newmont to process stockpiled ore that had previously been classified as waste, and extend processing life to 2030.
“The expansion extends profitable production and improves recoveries at Twin Creeks, and serves as a platform to further explore the deposit, which remains open along strike and at depth,” Newmont president and CEO Gary Goldberg said in a news statement on Tuesday.
The project was completed for $42-million, compared with a guidance of between $45-million and $55-million, marking the sixth project that Newmont has completed on, or ahead of, schedule and, at or below, budget over the last five years.
Goldberg added that the project generated an internal rate of return of about 20%.
The Twin Underground mine is mechanised, featuring remotely-operated loaders to improve safety and efficiency.
Twin Underground ore will also be blended with ore from Turquoise Ridge. In early 2018, Newmont and Barrick Gold approved the Turquoise Ridge Mine Optimisation project, which involves sinking a production shaft to access the richest part of the deposit. The new shaft is expected to increase ventilation capacity and lower unit costs by more than 20%, while increasing ore production rates to at least 1.1-million tons a year when it comes on line in 2022.