good for monday, page-2

Paddington bears hopes for more gold

ANGELA BUSINOSKA
A SHIFT towards a reliable, steady state
of production for Norton Gold Fields'
Paddington gold mine in WA will be
the main focus strategy for the mining
company in 2010 as it moves to optimise
its ten-year life of mine.
Norton owns and operates the
Paddington gold mine, about 35km north
of Kalgoorlie, which has a strong resource
base with around 120 prospects identified
within 1200sgkm of highly prospective
tenements.
In the next 18 months, the company
is set to invest about $35 million in
production and around $15 million in
exploration at the Paddington gold mine.
Referring to the gold exploration
program, Norton chief executive officer
Mark McCauley said that the money spent
on exploring these targets was aimed at
boosting production and/or lowering the
mine's operating costs.
"We are shifting towards larger, lower
cost, base load projects and as part of
this we will assess the possibility of
higher grade, open-cut and underground
production," Mr McCauley said.
Currently the company was pursuing
this type of production strategy focused on
projects such as the Navajo Chief, Janet
Ivy, Enterprise and Ben Hur deposits,
which would have the capacity to further
boost production.
The Paddington gold mine produced
about 135,000oz in 2009 from its open-cut
operations and Mr McCauley said that
the company expected this figure would
increase as the Homestead underground
operation - which had been deferred
pending results from further drilling of the
project area - came online.
The Homestead mine is the first
underground development for Norton
and forms part of the highly prospective
Mount Pleasant gold camp, 18km south
west of the Paddington mill and north east
of Kalgoorlie.
Aside from the extensive potential
offered by the Paddington mine, Mr
McCauley said that the Mount Morgan
project and its coal projects in Queensland's
Bowen Basin both presented opportunities
for further growth and expansion, and that
the company was continually assessing
these operations to increase their value
and profitability.
"The next year will see us refocusing
on higher volume, lower cost, base load
projects processing more than 3mtpa," he
said.
Relatively high capital expenditure
costs in the next 18 months were
expected as the company implemented
this production strategy with the aim of
leading into a high cash-generating period.
"Norton recently raised $40.5 million
through a placement of 123.4 million
shares at a significant premium to the
share price, which assisted with the
funding for the current growth strategy.
"Norton Gold Fields is in the right
commodity at the right time and has a
clear strategy to deliver value from its
long-life Paddington operations," said Mr
McCauley.
Paddington mine
Large-scale open-cut mining began
at Paddington gold mine in 1985 as
production capabilities increased due to
the development of technology.
In 2008, the pipeline feeding the
Paddington 3.3mtpa processing mill was
strengthened through the acquisition of
Bellamel Mining.
Norton's geological database of the
Paddington mine includes data from
about 60,000 drill holes and appraisal
work undertaken in the last 25 years. The
number one and number two open-cut
pits were mined until 2002, and and the
open-cut void is now used as an in-pit
tailings storage facility with a capacity of
more than 20 years.
Targets for the Paddington mine in
2010 include:
Copyright Agency Limited (CAL) licenced copy Ref: 65960421
Australian Mining Review
March, 2010
Page: 45
General News
Region: National
Circulation: 5000
Type: Australian Magazines Trade
Size: 567.52 sq.cms
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investment of about $35 million in
the next 18 months in production
and $15 million in exploration
processing of gold in excess of
3mtpa or recovery more than 93 per
cent per annum
a move towards large, lower cost,
base load projects, and
assessment of the potential
for higher grade, open-cut or
underground satellite projects to
increase production and lower
costs.
Homestead underground mine
Homestead is open at depth and along
strike, and is expected to assist in
increasing production of high grade ore
at Paddington to 200,000ozpa.
Underground mining at Homestead is
expected to strengthen the operational
capability of the Paddington mine and
will be essential to making ensuring a
long life and highly profitable facility.
Navajo Chief
The Navajo Chief deposit is a long life,
base load project with a resource of 11.6mt
at 1.55g/t, 40km from the Paddington
gold processing mill. A large source of soft
ore, this deposit has the potential to be
expanded further.
Janet Ivy
Previously an under-explored region, the
Janet Ivy project lies within the Kalgoorlie
West gold camp, 7km west of Kalgoorlie,
and has been drilled extensively in recent
years. It has a resource base of 7.4mt at
1.44g/t and is a large source of base load
hard ore.
Development at this open-cut mine
started in early 2010, and Norton has
plans to further expand the resource.
Enterprise
With resources of 15mt at 2.1g/t,
the Enterprise open-cut mine has a
development cost of about $40 million
and is a long life, base load project with
a significant source of hard, higher grade
ore.
Open at depth, the mine has
underground potential and is 35km from
the Paddington gold processing mill.
Ben Hur
The Ben Hur mine has a low development
cost, with additional drilling and design
still required at the deposit.
The project has a resource of 9.3mt at
1.74g/t of soft ore and is 45km from the
Paddington processing mill.
Mount Morgan (Queensland)
In addition to its WA operations, the
development plans for the Mount
Morgan (previously Kundana)
plant in Queensland were also on
track, with refurbishment of the
processing plant now complete.
"We estimate that first
production of gold will be
achieved within one year of the
project's commencement."
Mr McCauley added that
a feasibility study had been
completed for the Mount Morgan
project that outlined 35,000oz o
gold per annum in stage one for a
period of ten years and a second
stage of about 200,00t of pyrite
production per annum for ten
years.