Metso will supply two complete grinding mills and related equipment to Newcrest Mining’s Cadia Valley gold mine, near Orange in New South Wales, Australia. The value of these two orders is over EUR16 million, and the delivery will be completed by June 2010. The orders comprise two grinding mills. The first is a ball mill that will be the most powerful ball mill supplied into Australia. The second is a vertical stirred mill and it is the first of this size to be installed in the world. The ball mill will be installed in the Newcrest Cadia concentrator and the vertical mill to the company’s adjacent Ridgeway concentrator.

Newcrest is Australia’s largest gold producer and a global top 10 gold mining company. The company has seven operating mines – five in Australia, one in Indonesia and one in Papua New Guinea.

Cadia Holdings, a wholly owned subsidiary of Newcrest, received notice last month that planning approval had been granted for its proposed Cadia East project. The estimated capital cost of the project is expected to be nearly A$2 billion. Newcrest General Manager Cadia Valley Operations, Tony McPaul, said that receipt of planning approval was a critical next step in the project which was now expected to be considered by the Newcrest Board around the end of the first quarter in 2010 after remaining regulatory approvals have been finalised.

“If approved by the Board, the Cadia East project will be the largest underground mine in Australia and will secure our future in the region for at least the next 20 years. It will be Newcrest’s first panel cave, building on our expertise in underground mining.”