GR Engineering has won a contract to build a paste backfill plant for Kirkland Lake Gold’s Fosterville mine in Victoria, Australia.

The EPC contract will see the company carry out all process engineering design, supply, construction and commissioning of a plant capable of producing 65 m³/h of paste to fill the stopes in the gold mine. The scope of the work also includes the design of the underground reticulation piping.

GR Engineering is booking A$23.9 million ($17.3 million) for the work, which will start immediately. Completion of the facility is expected in 2019.

This is the second EPC paste backfill contract the ASX-listed company has won in the past few weeks. Earlier this month, Saracen Gold Mines awarded GR Engineering a contract to build and commission a plant able to produce 110-120 m³/h of paste to fill stopes at its Karari underground mine, part of its Carosue Dam operations, in Western Australia.

Kirkland Lake’s Fosterville operation is a high-grade underground mine expected to produce 275,000-300,000 oz of gold this year. It extracts gold via open stoping with cemented rockfill used where applicable and practical.