Australia-listed Matsa Resources has started mining the Red Dog gold deposit in Western Australia, with blasting expected to commence later this week.

Red Dog is around 25 km west of the Fortitude gold mine, which Matsa conducted trial mining on earlier this year and is currently being weighed up as a full-scale operation.

Matsa said all equipment is on site at Red Dog, offices have been established and blasthole drilling in preparation for the first blast this week is underway.

The company has an agreement with AngloGold Ashanti Australia whereby all gold ore will be treated at its nearby Sunrise Dam gold mine treatment facilities.

The feasibility study on Red Dog envisaged mining some 30,000 bank cubic metres (BCM) per month, using a 120-130 t excavator and a fleet of Cat 777 dump trucks. The total material movement is expected to come in at 600,000 t at a strip ratio of 2.4:1.

Mining of the open pit is scheduled to take two months to complete with ore haulage to the mill continuing for a further month.

This would see some 13,400 oz of gold recovered over the life of mine at an all-in sustaining cash cost of A$1,294/oz.