King of the Hills Mining Feasibility Study
In September 2020, Red 5 Limited completed a feasibility study for the King of the Hills (KOTH) gold project, which was acquired from Saracen in 2017 and subsequently operated as an underground mine. The project includes the main KOTH deposit (formerly known as Tarmoola), the nearby satellite deposits of Rainbow, Cerebus-Eclipse and Centauri, and the existing active underground operation. Open pit mining at KOTH started in 1989 and ceased in 2004 for financial reasons.
SRK has been involved with Red 5 and KOTH for a number of years, starting with a high-level technical review in 2017, concept studies in 2018, pre-feasibility study in 2019 and concluding with the feasibility study in 2020. SRK’s work with Red 5 culminated in declaration of an open cut Ore Reserve (~62M dmt at 1.10 g/t), representing a 16-year life of mine, to provide feed for a new 4 Mtpa processing plant constructed at KOTH.
SRK undertook the open cut mine planning components of various studies, which included a review of technical studies by other teams (geotechnical, hydrogeological, hydrology and environmental), mining model creation, open pit optimisation, mine planning designs, production scheduling, supporting the contractor tender process, reviews of operating and capital costs, and risk assessment.
