Name and Location
Leonora gold project, Australia.

Client
Kin Mining.

Project Description
The project comprises the Mertondale, Cardinia and Raeside areas in the Mt Margaret mineral field, in the centre of the Eastern goldfields.

A scoping study has shown that it could produce an estimated 315 600 oz of gold over a seven-year project life.

It envisages a standard truck-and-shovel configuration.

At peak production, two separate fleets will operate – a 100 t excavator (Komatsu PC1250 or similar), paired with 90 t rigid body dump trucks (Cat 777 or similar); and a smaller 75 t excavator (Cat 374 or similar), paired with 40 t articulated trucks (Cat 740 or similar).

The larger mining fleet will operate in the large, but simple-to-mine, pits of  Mertondale 3/4, Mert’s Reward, Tonto, Eclipse and Michelangelo/Leonardo.

The smaller mining fleet will be used in the remaining mining areas, which are narrow (entire mining area or cutback) in nature.

Once on site, there might be adequate flexibility to use either fleet in a particular area to produce the best outcome, such as prestripping waste using the larger fleet, or using the smaller fleet to recover ounces at the base of the larger pits.

Processing will start two months after mining to allow for a build-up of stockpiles. At steady-state production, the processing plant will run at a throughput rate of one-million tonnes a year.

The operation is expected to deliver 30 500 oz of gold in its first year of operation, peaking at 65 800 oz in Year 5 of operation and declining to 10 500 oz in its final year.

Net Present Value/Internal Rate of Return
Based on a gold price of AS1 500/oz, the project will have a net present value of A$56.3-million and an internal rate of return of 30%, with a payback of 45 months.

Value
An estimated A$55-million will be required to complete the project.

Duration
Not stated.

Latest Developments
Kin Mining has produced the first ore from its Lewis openpit, located in the Cardinia project area at the Leonora gold project.

Kin considers the trial operation at Lewis to be a low start-up cost, opencut mining exercise that will effectively test a high-grade portion of the larger Bruno-Lewis Cardinia supergene resource to determine the economic viability of extraction and processing.

The Bruno-Lewis Cardinia supergene resource is currently 3.4-million tonnes at 1.3 g/t gold for 139 400 oz.

The aim of the Lewis openpit operation is to generate a cash-positive operation and to establish accurate mining costs, which will aid in the economic evaluation of the larger Cardinia supergene resource.

Kin also hopes to obtain accurate specific gravity data, which will be incorporated into the resource model. Further, it aims to determine the metallurgical recovery rate and the vat leach recovery rates of the Cardinia ore.

Meanwhile, negotiations are under way for toll treatment of the first parcel of ore, which is considered the ideal strategy to reduce risk of the mining operation while enabling the company to progress with its vat leach testwork.

Key Contracts and Suppliers
None stated.

On Budget and on Time?
Not stated.

Contact Details for Project Information
Kin Mining, tel +61 8 9242 2227 or email info@kinmining.com.au.