The $507 million Gruyere Gold Project north-east of Laverton in Western Australia has been given environmental approval by WA Environment Minister Albert Jacob and the project’s developers – a joint venture between Australia’s Gold Road Resources and South Africa’s Gold Fields – are expecting to gain final approvals in February 2017.
Works on the gold mine’s facilities and open mine is set to commence once the final approvals – including the project’s mining proposal, project management plan and works approval – have been given.
“Achieving environmental approval is an important milestone and clears the path for the project’s mining proposal, project management plan and works approval, all of which have been submitted.
“We anticipate receiving these final approvals in February 2017, immediately following which we will commence construction of the processing plant and development work on the Gruyere open pit mine,” said Gold Road managing Director and CEO Ian Murray.
Once operational, the mine’s processing plant will have the capacity to handle approximately 7.5 million tonnes of fresh ore annually as well as up to 8.8 million tonnes of oxide ore a year for over 13 years.
Currently, Gold Road has completed dismantling and relocating the first 300 rooms of the accommodation village and is in the process of constructing the new rooms – which will be completed by March. The second batch of 300 rooms will be dismantled and installed starting this February, with completion set for June 2017.
The project is also currently on the final stages of evaluating tender applications for major works contracts, with the final decision expected to be announced by March 2017. Major works contracts include the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract for the gold mine’s processing plant as well as associated infrastructure; bulk earthworks contract; energy supply agreement, including power station and gas pipeline; long lead time equipment; and catering contract.
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Source: Mining Australia, Mining Weekly and Gold Road