GR Engineering Services says it has entered into a contract with Saracen Mineral Holdings that will see the company carry out the engineering design, procurement and construction of expansion works on its mineral processing plant at the Carosue Dam gold operations, in Western Australia.

The works under the contract include the upgrade of the existing processing plant capacity to a nominal throughput of 3.2 Mt/y by the installation of secondary grinding equipment, in addition to upgrades to the existing carbon-in-leach circuit and other process infrastructure, GR Engineering says.

The contract price is $24.5 million ($17 million), with work under the contract starting immediately with the completion of the upgrade expected to occur in the first half of its 2021 financial year.

Saracen has previously said Carosue Dam will soon undergo a mill expansion from 2.4 Mt/y to 3.2 Mt/y with feed coming from both underground and open-pit mines.

GR Engineering’s Managing Director, Geoff Jones, said: “Having been involved in the initial development of Carosue Dam in 2000, our team has maintained a strong relationship with Saracen and utilised its understanding of the project to deliver incremental benefits to the project. GR Engineering looks forward to achieving positive outcomes for Saracen through the safe and successful delivery of these expansion works.”