Saracen Mineral Holdings Limited has awarded a new five-year, circa $70m drill and blast contract to SRG Global Ltd.
The contract scope includes the provision of specialist drill and blast services including production drilling, explosives supply and management as well as grade control drilling.
The services will be provided at Saracen’s Thunderbox and Carosue Dam operations, both located in Western Australia.
Thunderbox is located in the highly prospective Yandal Belt and the Agnew-Wiluna Belt in the North Eastern Goldfields of Western Australia.
The Thunderbox Operations are centred on the Thunderbox Open Pit and CIL gold treatment plant. The Thunderbox deposit comprises three main mineralised zones, termed A, C, and D, over a strike length of 1.5km.
The Carosue Dam operations tenement holdings and gold deposits are located in one of the world’s most prospective gold provinces, incorporating the Laverton and Keith Kilkenny Tectonic Zones, 120km north-east of Kalgoorlie, Western Australia.
In FY2020, gold production will be principally sourced from the Karari / Dervish underground mines and potentially the Deep South underground mine with the balance coming from third party ore purchase agreements and various ore stockpiles.
Production guidance at Carosue Dam operations for FY2020 is 190,000 to 200,000ozs. Saracen’s primary business plan for the operations over the next two years is to develop the operation to achieve a long-term sustained production rate of 240,000 – 250,0000oz per annum.