First Karlawinda gold pour imminent for Capricorn

According to a company report, commissioning activities were completed to plan over the past three weeks and culminated in the ball mill and crushing circuit being ready for full operations in the last week.

Processing has commenced with low-grade ore and will transition to run-of-mine grade ore over the next week as the operation moves to steady state.

The project is now building gold in circuit and is expected to pour first gold in around one week (from July 24).

Capricorn executive chairman Mark Clark said the commencement of continuous ore processing at the Karlawinda Gold Project was a significant milestone for the company.

“It is the culmination of a huge effort from our construction team and key contractors,” he said. “We now look forward to transitioning to full steady state operations and turning the project in to a profitable, long-life business.”

In August last year, Capricorn awarded MACA a five-year contract for open pit mining services at Karlawinda.

The open pit services include drill and blast, and load and haul activities, with around 11 million bank cubic metres of ore and waste to be moved a year using a fleet of 180-tonne dump trucks.

The contract is expected to generate around $410 million in revenue for MACA and can potentially be extended by Capricorn.

In August, Capricorn reported that first gold production at Karlawinda was targeted for the June 2021 quarter.