Photo by: Bloomberg
PERTH (miningweekly.com) – The board of gold miner St Barbara has approved a A$100-million investment to expand its Gwalia operations, in Western Australia.
“The approval of the Gwalia extension project begins an exciting new phase in St Barbara’s and the Gwalia mine’s story. Gwalia started in 1896 and it just keeps going,” said MD and CEO Bob Vassie.
He told shareholders that the extension programme will ensure that the Gwalia operation can continue to deliver strong, high-margin gold production until at least 2024, with the foundation laid for further extensions to the mine life beyond this, as well as the potential for increased production.
The current extension project is expected to take between two-and-a-half and three years to construct, with the project comprising two main components – a ventilation upgrade and paste aggregate fill.
The expansion project will extend the Gwalia underground workings to at least 2 000 m below surface by 2024, with current mining happening at around 1 500 m and 1 540 m.
St Barbara noted that, should the current drilling programme identify sufficient resources below the 2 000 m line, additional infrastructure could extend the ventilation from 2 000 m to 2 200 m, at an additional cost of between A$30-million and A$35-million.
Gwalia is expected to deliver between 255 000 oz and 265 000 oz of gold in the 2017 financial year.