Name and Location
Castle Hill and Red Dam gold projects, Australia.

Client
Phoenix Gold.

Project Description
An independent definitive feasibility study (DFS) completed on Phoenix’s core projects at Castle Hill, Red Dam and the satellite pits within a 15 km radius, assumes a standalone two-million-tonne-a-year processing plant at Castle Hill for high-grade ore and a two-million-tonne-a-year heap-leach plant, in close proximity, for lower-grade ore treatment. The project has total ore reserves of 30.59-million tonnes, grading 1.18 g/t of gold and total mineral resources of 103.4-million tonnes, grading 1.1 g/t of gold.

A staged development approach has been proposed.

Opencut mining will be conducted using truck-and-shovel excavation methods under a contract mining operation. The DFS found that, based on a gold price of A$1 310/oz, the following deposits could be economically mined :
• Castle Hill Stage 1, comprising the Mick Adam and Wadi openpits, located 500 m from the proposed Castle Hill processing plant;
• Castle Hill Stage 2, comprising the Kintore pits, located 6.5 km from the Castle Hill processing plant;
• Red Dam, located 11.5 km from the Castle Hill processing plant; and
• various satellite deposits.

Contract opencut mining under Phoenix management will start at the Mick Adam and Wadi pits and will produce the bulk of the mill feed for the first five years of operation. The Red Dam and smaller satellite pits will start as required to ensure efficient mine fleet scheduling and optimal ore blending through the processing plant. The proposed heap-leach plant is planned to commence in year two to treat the lower-grade material from Castle Hill to complement the milling operation.

Haulage of ore to the Castle Hill plant will use existing haul road infrastructure where required. Ore from the Mick Adam and Wadi openpits will be delivered to the run-of-mine (RoM) pad by the contract mining fleet directly from the mine, with the ability to directly tip the ore into the primary crusher chamber, with significant cost savings.

The processing plant is based on a nominal two-million tonnes a year on the proposed blend at P80 125 μm grind size. The plant design proposed is simple, but robust, and broadly comprises two-stage open-circuit crushing to a low aspect single-stage semiautogenous (SAG) grinding circuit with a recycle crusher. The SAG mill is 5.8 m in diameter, 9.2 m long and powered by a 6 MW motor. The gravity circuit comprises two Knelson concentrators discharging into an in-line leach reactor. The plant has six carbon-in-leach tanks, each with a nominal capacity of 1 500 m, providing a slurry residence time in the leach circuit of 24 hours at a two-million-tonne-a-year throughput. A 12 m3 elution column is used for desorption.

Value
Total capital costs are estimated at A$136-million.

Duration
The project is expected to take 18 months to complete, with project development expected to start in the second half of this year.

Latest Developments
Phoenix Gold has signed a two-year milling agreement with FMR Investments for the Castle Hill project, in Western Australia.

Under the terms of the agreement, between 600 000 t/y and 800 000 t/y of ore will be processed at FMR’s Greenfields ore treatment facility, in Coolgardie, on a quarterly campaign basis, with no blending of any third-party ore.

The mill will be operated under the technical management of Phoenix, which will configure the circuit and set operational parameters to ensure optimal gold recovery at the lowest possible operating costs.

Ore will be sourced from the shallow smaller-scale opencut mines, in close proximity to the mill, which have been optimised and designed in accordance with the staged development plan for Castle Hill.

The staged development of Castle Hill will result in the establishment of a two-million-tonne-a-year processing plant and a two-million-tonne-a-year heap-leach plant to treat lower-grade ore. Over an eight-year mine life, Castle Hill is expected to produce about one-million ounces of gold, with production estimated at about 129 550 oz/y.

Payment for milling will be based on an open book cost-plus structure, and on a dollar-to-tonne basis.

Key Contracts and Suppliers
None stated.

On Budget and on Time?
Not stated.

Contact Details for Project Information
Phoenix Gold, tel +61 8 9021 2704, fax +61 8 9021 3393 or email info@phoenixgold.com.au.