With the Mining Proposal and accompanying Mine Closure Plan approval in place, the Company now has all required statutory approvals – covering environment, water, waste man agement and safety – to begin mining at Coolgardie. Primary Gold Managing Director Garry Mills said the start of mining at Coolgardie represented a key milestone in the Company’s history.
“Having received full approvals to commence mining at our Coolgardie operations, we can now move on to next steps of setting up site for mining,” he said.
“A firm schedule can now be put in place for mining of first ore and hence timing of processing ore parcels to be scheduled for toll treating.
“With mining commencin g and exploration targeted for the Coolgardie leases, 2018 marks the beginning of an important new phase of growth and activity for Primary Gold.
“We are very much looking forward to what the coming year could bring.”
A recently completed Pre- Feasibility Study (PFS) for the Coolgardie Project confirmed the viability of a low capital cost start -up gold mining operation based on the extraction of shallow reserves across three initial starter pits at the Project – Tycho, MacPhersons and A -Cap – with the ore to be treated via a toll -treatment arrangement at a nearby processing facility.
Key Contracts To Now Be Executed
As previously announced, Hampton Mining and Civil (Hampton) was confirmed as the “preferred” contractor for development of Coolgardie Project. In this role Hampton will be responsible for all drill and blast, excavation and haulage operations at the Project. In addition, Mining and Drilling Services Pty Ltd (MDS) will undertake Reverse Circulatio n (RC) grade control drilling. With all necessary approvals in place the Company can now finalise the key contracts with Hampton and MDS.
Grade Control Drilling
With receipt of final approval, an RC grade control drill rig will be mobilised to site in p reparation to commence the grade control program which will target the A -Cap and Tycho pits.
Site preparation and access to the pits has now been completed for the program which will begin as soon as the drill arrives on site from Perth.
Toll Treating
Working in conjunction with Hampton, the Company is now able to finalise the mine and mill schedule. This will allow the finalisation of the toll treating schedule enabling appropriate processing options to be determined and finalised.