Australian gold major Northern Star Resources has ordered US$75 million worth of equipment from FLSmidth for its $1 billion Kalgoorlie mill expansion, announced this week, which is expected to double annual production to circa-900,000 ounces from FY28.
The Kalgoorlie Consolidated Gold Mines (KCGM) mill upgrade from 13 million tonnes per annum to 27Mtpa will again make the consolidated Golden Mile in Western Australia’s Eastern Goldfields the country’s largest gold producer, ahead of Cadia in New South Wales. The Kalgoorlie landmark has produced more than 60Moz of gold over the past 120 years.
KCGM has a current plus-20-year mine life on ore reserves of 12.2Moz grading an average 1.3 grams per tonne.
Danish-listed equipment manufacturer FLSmidth said its products covered most of the new flowsheet and included the world’s highest power (20MW), gear driven semi-autogenous grinding mills, and first gear-driven 8.53m-diameter ball mill.
It was also supplying the primary crusher, pebble crushers, flotation cells and a pre-leach thickener, plus spare and wear parts.
The equipment, to be delivered next year, would “substantially reduce the mine’s energy consumption”, the manufacturer said, without mentioning a reduction measure.
KCGM said increasing plant throughput combined with simplifying its existing flow sheet would deliver “many benefits”, but didn’t list lower energy use among them.
“KCGM is connected to Parkeston power station (110MW) and the grid (52MW). Northern Star is initiating a large renewable energy generation project to reduce carbon emissions, improve power supply security and reduce the cost of power,” the company said.
Australian Securities Exchange-listed Northern Star has a current market value around A$14.15 billion.
