The Carosue Dam Operations(CDO), accommodation village and other vital infrastructure is all located within the South Laverton gold field, situated 120km North East of Kalgoorlie in Western Australia.
The CDO processing plant was constructed by JR Engineering in 2000 and commissioned in November of that year. The CDO operated continuously through to June 2005 when it was put on care and maintenance.
In February 2006 Saracen acquired the CDO processing plant as part of a package of tenements known as South Laverton from St Barbara Limited. The processing facility and associated infrastructure remain in excellent working order. Minimal refurbishment is required to reinstated the mill to its full nameplate capacity of 2.4Mtpa.
The CDO processing plant was originally designed to treat 2.0Mtpa of primary ore. This increased to 2.4Mtpa when blending softer oxide and transitional ore types into the mill feed. The process flow is relatively simple, incorporating two stage crushing for a final product size of 30mm and single stage grinding to 160 microns. Gold recovery is via gravity concentration and carbon-in-leach cyandiation (CIL).
The plant processed over 10Mt of ore in its five year operating life – averaging 2.2Mtpa, and over 700,000oz of recoverable gold was produced.
Historical performance reflects a well designed plant, suited to the range of ore types included in the current project reserves. Comparison of actual versus design performance indicates progressive optimisation of operating conditions over the mine life. No deficiencies or concerns with the design or historical performance in respect of the current project ore sources have been identified, and future performance in the key areas of throughput and availability is expected to reach similar levels to those achieved during previous operations. A minor refurbishment program is planned for the facilities which is scheduled to take approximately 4-6 months to complete.
The on-site facilities also include a fully operational administration office, electrical and maintenance workshops, storeroom, first aid rooms and emergency response facilities, all of which remain in place from previous operations.
Approximately 3km to the South of the CDO processing plant is a modern and well appointed accommodation village. The village was constructed in 2000 and consisted of 183 bedrooms, wet and dry messing facilities, gymnasium, tennis court, laundries, dining room and recreation room.
