Red 5 Ltd reports that, following months of detailed planning and preparation, its mining contractor, Macmahon Contractors Pty Ltd has commenced open pit mining at the 100%–owned 2.4 Moz, 16–year life–of–mine King of the Hills (KOTH) Gold Project in Western Australia. With the KOTH Project now well past 83% completion (at the end of December 2021), Red 5 says it is firmly on track to deliver first gold production through the new state–of–the–art KOTH processing plant in the June quarter. The commencement of open pit mining is in–line with the project execution schedule, with underground mining expected to commence on schedule in early April 2022. Macmahon is progressively mobilising to KOTH, establishing infrastructure, and ramping up its site workforce according to plan.

The initial open pit mining fleet consists of one 360 t EX3600 Hitachi excavator and four 789C Caterpillar trucks supporting ancillary equipment. The full fleet for open pit mining will eventually comprise three Hitachi excavators, 16 789 Caterpillar trucks and additional ancillary equipment. Red 5’s mining team has been optimising the KOTH mine plans over the past 12 months, with the final mining fleet configured to enable scalability and future production growth.

Red 5 Managing Director, Mark Williams, said: “The start of open pit mining represents another exciting milestone, marking the start of ore production from Australia’s next major gold mine. “We will now commence stockpiling ore ahead of the planned commissioning of the new, state–of–the–art KOTH processing plant, with all workstreams remaining on track to achieve first gold production in the June quarter. The fact that we have been able to advance construction of the project on schedule and within budget – despite widespread labour and supply chain shortages – represents an outstanding achievement by our construction management team and MACA Interquip. With the commencement of mining on schedule, I would also like to acknowledge the efforts of our mining team and mining contractor Macmahon for their hard work and exceptional planning to date.”