PERTH (miningweekly.com) – The ramp-up of gold production from the King of the Hills operation, in Western Australia, progressed slower than anticipated in the three months to September, gold miner Red 5 said on Thursday.

The project produced 26 710 oz of gold during the quarter, up from the 18 586 oz produced in the June quarter, with gold sales increasing from 16 587 oz to 30 005 oz in the same period.

However, Red 5 noted that the ramp-up schedule for the September quarter had been impacted by Covid-absenteeism, delaying progress towards higher-grade openpit benches and underground production stopes.

Additional crews have been in place since August to enable the mining schedule to catch up by December 2022.

Furthermore, unplanned downtime was experienced in the processing plant, with mill shutdowns required in September to reconfigure the semi-autogenous grinding (SAG) mill to process an increasingly hard primary rock charge as ore feed.

“Following the first gold pour on June 5 and the successful delivery of the A$226-million King of the Hills project, the main focus during the September quarter was to progress the ramp-up of all aspects of the new operation. The King of the Hills and Darlot mining operations delivered production of 26 710 oz in the September quarter and gold sales of 30 005 oz,” said MD Mark Williams.

“As outlined recently, the ramp-up of mining at King of the Hills has been impacted by Covid absenteeism and unplanned downtime in the processing plant, which reduced availability and mill throughput rates.

“In September, the SAG mill has also been adjusting to a harder rock blend as the production of hard rock ore from the mines ramps up, transitioning from the oxide material in the stockpiles and openpit. Since the end of the quarter, the ramp-up of throughput at the SAG mill and within the processing circuit has performed more in line with expected production rates.

“We have implemented measures to address the issues experienced in the September quarter and, importantly, the King of the Hills mill overall is performing largely in line with expectations, achieving sustained periods at design throughput rates during the reporting period and into October,” said Williams.

At the start of October, Red 5 completed a capital raising to assist with working capital and to fund the next phase of its growth programme, including a planned expansion of the King of the Hills processing plant to increase throughput capacity from the current 4.7-million-tonne-a-year nameplate to a targeted 5.5-million tonnes a year.

“During the quarter we also delivered an updated resource and reserve statement which reinforced the exceptional endowment of King of the Hills orebody, with a 7% increase in the King of the Hills mineral resource to 4.7-million ounces of contained gold and a 12.5% increase in the ore reserve to 2.7-million ounces.

“Our global mineral resource base across the Eastern Goldfields, including the King of the Hills and Darlot mining operations and our satellite deposits, increased by 10% to total 6.6-million ounces of contained gold.”