Newcrest will apply to fill the rest of its old open pit with tailings as gold production at the Cadia Valley mine increased in the past three months.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
The company’s quarterly report to June 30 revealed gold production at Cadia was up nine per cent on the previous quarter and there was a record amount of ore processed in June.
The collapse of a wall at the northern tailings dam earlier this year forced the company to switch to putting tailings into its then-empty open pit.
It received approval from the NSW Department of Planning and Environment to fill 200 metres of the open pit and it will now seek to fill more.
“Newcrest will be applying for permission to use the remaining 300 metres of the Cadia Hill open pit for tailings storage in two distinct stages,” the report said.
In the first quarter of 2019 it will apply to use a further 140 metres with a final application to use the remaining 160 metres to be lodged later next year.
This was a quarter to be proud of.
- Newcrest managing director and CEO Sandeep Biswas
Newcrest managing director and CEO Sandeep Biswas said the company had achieved strong results in the three months.
“This was a quarter to be proud of,” he said.
“Cadia recovered well from the tailings wall slump in March to post record monthly mine production and mill throughput rates in June at an annualised rate exceeding 30 million tonnes per annum.
“The tender process for early works for the next Cadia block cave has commenced.”
The quarterly report also found safety levels were improving.
And Newcrest announced it would start works to further strengthen the wall of the southern tailings dam.
“The embankment walls have shown no sign of movement and there is no suggestion of imminent failure risk due to any instability, however Newcrest is working with external experts to undertake localised buttressing of two sections of the main embankment wall as a precautionary action,” a spokesman said.
The work is expected to take three to four months to complete.