Tag Archives: Deflector

Macmahon expands underground work with Silver Lake Deflector contract

Macmahon Holdings’ underground mining division has been awarded a four-year contract with Silver Lake Resources to perform the mining works at the Deflector gold-copper mine in Western Australia.

A Macmahon subsidiary, GBF, has been providing underground mining services at the Deflector mine since mining commenced in early 2016. Macmahon acquired 100% of GBF in 2019, and this business is now an important part of the company’s strategy to expand in the underground mining services market, it said.

The company also recently had its stay extended at Silver Lake’s Mount Monger gold operations, in Western Australia.

The contract is a full service mining contract and, therefore, incorporates all underground development, ground support and production activities, including the provision of all labour and mobile mining equipment. Anticipated to run until April 2025, the contract is expected to generate around A$220 million ($170 million) in revenue for the company over this period.

Macmahon’s CEO and Managing Director, Michael Finnegan, said: “This new contract is an important milestone in our strategy to expand our underground business, and is a clear demonstration of the benefits we are now realising from the GBF acquisition.

“Importantly, the Deflector mine is a high-grade gold and copper asset in Western Australia, so is an attractive project in the current macro environment. We look forward to continuing to support the development of Deflector, and to achieving further scale in the underground market.”

GR Engineering set to revamp tailings leaching process at Silver Lake’s Deflector

GR Engineering Services says it has received a letter of intent from a subsidiary of Silver Lake Resources for the award of upgrade works involving the flotation tailings leach process at the Deflector gold-copper operations in Western Australia.

The project is located in the southern Murchison region of Western Australia, 450 km north of Perth and 160 km east of Geraldton.

Silver Lake previously said it planned to upgrade process infrastructure at Deflector to include a carbon-in-pulp circuit to broaden available ore sources and enhance recoveries, providing potential upside to current production levels.

The contract sum is A$23 million ($16 million) and will be undertaken on an engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) basis, the company said, adding that the contract for the works will be finalised next month and GR Engineering will commence early works immediately.

Geoff Jones, GR Engineering Managing Director, said: “This letter of intent award represents GR Engineering’s first major project with Silver Lake. We are looking forward to engaging closely with the Silver Lake team to deliver safe and successful outcomes for the project.”

Redpath Australia to work on Silver Lake’s Rothsay gold project

Redpath Australia says it has been awarded a contract to carry out underground mining services at Silver Lake Resources’ Rothsay gold project, in Western Australia.

The contract includes portal and decline development, which is due to commence in the September quarter of 2020, according to the company.

Rothsay is within the Warriedar Greenstone gold belt of the Yalgoo Goldfield in the Southern Murchison Region of Western Australia. The current project plan would see mineralised ore extracted from narrow sub-vertical structures, according to Redpath.

“Rothsay has a rich mining history dating back to the discovery of gold in 1894 and including several phases of mining, most recently by Metana Minerals in the early 1990s,” it said.

Redpath Managing Director, Gavin Ramage, said: “We are looking forward to working with the Silver Lake Resources team in increasing value for their shareholders through safe and efficient delivery of underground mining services.”

In its March quarter results, Silver Lake Resources said pre-development activities had continued at Rothsay, including the commencement of the tendering process for key construction and operational contracts.

It said it expected Rothsay ore to form part of the Deflector mine feed from the September quarter of 2022, “in parallel with the Deflector plant upgrade”.

When the company announced plans to acquire Egan Street Resources – thereby adding Rothsay to its books – last year, it said Rothsay would bring an additional 454,000 oz of gold JORC resources and 200,000 oz of gold reserves to its portfolio.

It also said the addition of Rothsay provided it with a near-term development opportunity to introduce a new high-grade ore source to an upgraded Deflector processing facility.

The Deflector gold-copper mine is around 85 km from Rothsay, and produced first gold in May 2016.

A shallow narrow vein, high-grade gold and copper underground mine, Deflector also has a fit-for-purpose processing facility to enable recovery of gold from a gravity circuit, prior to the production of a copper-gold concentrate via flotation.