Aeris Resources Limited has enlisted the help of MacKellar Group, owned by North American Construction Group, to carry out the Murrawombie open-pit cutback project at the Tritton operations in New South Wales, Australia.

Aeris says mobilisation for the contract has already commenced, with personnel and equipment having arrived on site. Mining is scheduled to begin in early February.

Aeris’ Executive Chairman, Andre Labuschagne, said: “The Murrawombie open-pit cutback is a key project for Tritton. With over a million tonnes in reserve, the cutback delivers a significant proportion of the mill feed in the 2026 financial year. Non-acid forming waste material from the stripping will be used to cap the old Murrawombie heap leach pads, greatly reducing our future rehabilitation obligations.

“We are looking forward to working with our open-pit contractor, Mackellar on this critical project for Tritton.”

The  Murrawombie open pit has a probable reserve of 1.34 Mt grading 1.3% Cu and 0.2g/t Au.

Mackellar Group was the successful tenderer for the open-pit mining contract to undertake the cutback.

Mining will be undertaken in two stages with Stage 1 involving limited stripping to access remaining ore from the base of the old pit prior to the major stripping and ore mining in Stage 2. A fleet of excavators, dozers and Cat 777 trucks will be deployed over a 14-month contract period.

Non-acid forming waste rock will be used to encapsulate the existing heap leach pads as well as any potentially acid forming waste from the pit. The use of the waste rock from the cutback to cover the heap leach pads saves considerable expense in closure activities later in the mine life.