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26 E&MJ; • DECEMBER 2015 www.e-mj.com Newmont Expanding Tanami Gold Production REGIONAL NEWS - AUSTRALIA/OCEANIA Newmont Mining has announced plans to expand its underground Tanami gold mine in Australia's Northern Territory by opening a second decline to the mine and increasing plant throughput capacity. The project will lift Tanami gold production by approximate- ly 80,000 ounces per year (oz/y) to between 425,000 and 475,000 oz/y at all-in sus- taining costs of between $700 and $750/oz during its first five years of operation. First commercial production from the expansion is scheduled for the second half of 2017. Adding the second decline at Tanami will allow an increase in the mining rate from 2.3 million metric tons per year (mt/y) to 2.6 million mt/y. The processing plant expansion will include addition of a ball mill, thickener, and gravity circuit to improve recoveries and increase throughput capacity to 2.6 million mt/y. The expansion project will open access to about 2 million oz of gold resources and extend Tanami mine life by three years. The project will also create a platform for explo- ration drilling to support future growth. Recent exploration results demonstrate the potential to double Tanami reserves and resources by expanding existing deposits and developing adjacent discoveries. Newmont estimates the Tanami expan- sion will cost between $100 million and $120 million, which it will fund from free cash flow and available cash balances. Of this amount, a quarter will be spent in 2015, half will be spent in 2016, and the remainder will be spent in 2017. "Tanami is a Newmont success story," Newmont President and CEO Gary Goldberg said. "Since 2012, the team has more than doubled gold production while cutting costs by about two-thirds and sig- nificantly improving resource confidence. The expansion project continues this tra- jectory, offering robust returns of more than 35% at current gold prices." Tanami is located in the Tanami desert 590 miles southwest of Darwin and 350 miles northwest of Alice Springs, making it one of Australia's most remote mining locations. It is a fly-in, fly-out operation. Newmont acquired the mine in 2002 through its merger with Normandy Mining. In 2014, Tanami produced approxi- mately 345,000 oz of gold at all-in sus- taining costs of $1,038/oz. Metals X's Central Murchison Project Pours First Gold Metals X Ltd. poured the first gold doré bar at its Central Murchison gold project in Western Australia on October 26. The bar weighed 11.76 kg and was predominately derived from gravity concentrates. The Central Murchison project is mining several historically mined properties, with ore trucked to and processed at the exist- ing, 2-million-mt/y Bluebird plant. Metals X acquired the plant in 2014 and has made it the centerpiece of its Central Murchison development strategy. The plant has been fully recommissioned, is currently being optimized, and is operating at an average throughput rate of more than 200 mt/h. The Central Murchison project's mine properties are located near and between the towns of Meekatharra and Cue. The Bluebird plant is 10 km south of Meekatharra. The Central Murchison district as a whole is about 500 km northeast of the port of Geraldton. In terms of past production, the Murchison Province is Western Australia's second most important gold-mining region after the Eastern Goldfields. Metals X's project includes six of the Province's most prolific gold mines, with aggregated past production of more than 10 million oz since mining began in the region in the 1890s. Metals X announced the completion of the feasibility study for its current project in January 2015. The study revealed robust economics for a project producing approximately 200,000 oz/y of gold at all- in sustaining costs of A$1,180/oz and an initial mine life of 13 years. Metals X began open-pit mining at the project in June 2015 and began under- ground mining in August. Due to the lead time required to re-enter and build sus- tainable production from the underground mines, open-pit mining is contributing a major share of production in the early stages of operations; however, underground mining will supply the bulk of production over the life of the project. Ore reserves currently total 21.3 million mt, grading 3 g/mt gold and containing Newmont predicts that adding a second decline at Tanami will allow an increase in the mining rate from 2.3 mil- lion to 2.6 million mt/y. (Photo: Newmont Mining)