Red 5 has achieved the first gold milestone at its King of the Hills project in Western Australia, the culmination of a diligent journey for the gold miner.
Two gold doré bars weighing 1588 ounces were delivered on Sunday, following the recent commissioning of the gravity and elution circuits.
“The gyratory crushing circuit has been running on a combination of oxide and fresh material for over 40 days and has achieved throughput rates above 1600 tonnes per hour,” Red 5 said in a statement.
“The grinding circuit and wet plant continue to ramp up, with the SAG (semi-autogenous grinding) mill now achieving throughput rates over 600 tonnes per hour at moderate mill load and power draw.”
Red 5 said the King of the Hills processing team was focused on increasing the project’s mill production rate as it looks to ramp up the processing plant to full capacity.
The company said it had more than 800,000 tonnes, or approximately two months’ worth, of feed stock on the run of mine (ROM) pad.
“We can all be proud of this achievement,” Red 5 managing director Mark Williams said. “It marks the beginning of a new era for Red 5, with the new 4.7-million-tonne-per-annum (Mtpa) King of the Hills processing plant set to become a highly efficient production hub.
“There are promising signs regarding future throughput potential and with two months of feed stocks ready for processing and mining now well established, we have a strong platform to build upon.”
Acquiring both King of the Hills and Darlot in 2017, Red 5 saw an opportunity to combine the two operations into the one production centre.
As the rising miner made exploration strides – adding tonnes and grade to the operation’s resource – that vision steadily became a reality and the company hasn’t looked back since.
Red 5’s initial goal is to achieve a nameplate production of 4.7Mtpa of ore at King of the Hills, which will be delivered across a 16-year mine life. From there, the company will be pushing to elevate the project above 5Mtpa.