Tag Archives: Rothsay

Westfill secures underground mining contract at Vault Minerals’ Rothsay mine

Mine operation news, Mining services, Precious metals, , , ,

Westfill Pty Ltd is pleased to announce the award of a two-year underground mining contract with Vault Minerals, previously Silverlake Resources, for the Rothsay mine, in the southern Murchison region of Western Australia.

The contract encompasses both development and production activities, focusing on extracting mineralised ore from narrow sub-vertical structures. Operations at Rothsay commenced on September 17, and the award of the contract is testament to the solid relationship between Westfill and Vault Minerals, Westfill says.

Westfill Managing Director, Ashley Morcombe, said: “We are very excited to take on our first full principal mining services contract with Red5 (now Vault Minerals after the merger with Silverlake Resources) who are a valued client of Westfill’s.

“Our Darlot development team’s hard work and consistently high performance are what put Westfill up as a key contender for the Rothsay contract. I would like to thank our entire team for pulling the contract together and mobilising in a short time frame. We look forward to continuing our high performance and success at another of Vault Minerals’ sites.”

The Rothsay underground mine is a high‑grade satellite ore source, with ore road‑hauled approximately 197 km to the Deflector processing facility. In the 2024 financial year, the Rothsay underground mine produced approximately 221,000 t of ore at an average grade of 4.8 g/t Au.

Redpath puts Australia’s first Sandvik DD212 into operation at Silver Lake’s Rothsay

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Redpath Australia says it has taken delivery of the first Sandvik DD212 production drill in Australia, putting it into action at Silver Lake Resources’ Rothsay gold mine in Western Australia.

The DD212 is a single-boom, electro-hydraulic drill for mining development and production and has been highly anticipated in the Australian narrow-vein market, Redpath says.

Redpath Australia’s Plant Manager, Chris Riethmuller, said the contractor specifically needed a rig that could drill in a 2 x 3 m drive and was able to drill within 100 mm of each wall to minimise dilution and increase recovery.

“Sandvik Mining and Rock Solutions stepped up to the challenge to the extent of redesigning the boom configuration to accommodate the request,” he said. “We then challenged them further and requested a 12-rod carousel be fitted to both of the rigs we have ordered. Sandvik had a plan in the pipeline for this carousel but agreed to fast track the project for us.”

The carousel has not yet been fitted to the first machine working at Rothsay due to scheduling requirements but is due to arrive in June, according to Riethmuller, who said the company is looking forward to taking advantage of the increased safety and expected productivity gain this tool will deliver.

In January, Sandvik announced the introduction of the DD212 rig, an upgrade of the Sandvik DD210 development drill rig, which is designed for narrow-vein operations.

Redpath, back in April 2020, announced it had been awarded a contract to carry out underground mining services at Rothsay.

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

Mineral project development, Mining services, Precious metals, , , , , , ,

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.