Darlot Satellite Gold Mine
The Darlot Gold Mine is located ~900km north-east of Perth in the highly-endowed Eastern Goldfields region of Western Australia. The mine is operated through Red 5’s 100%-owned subsidiary company, Darlot Mining Company Pty Ltd.
The mine has a long production history, celebrating its 30th anniversary of continuous gold production in November 2018, with a total output of 17.8 million tonnes grading 4.8g/t Au for 2.8 million ounces of contained gold since mining commenced in November 1988.
The operation has been previously owned and operated by Sundowner Minerals NL, Forsayth NL, Plutonic Resources Ltd, Homestake Mining Company, Barrick Gold Corporation and, before its acquisition by Red 5 in October 2017, by Gold Fields Limited.
Despite its significant historical output, Darlot continues to deliver new targets, including the high-grade Oval West deposit, which was discovered by Red 5 in February 2018.
Satellite underground mine
In July 2022, Darlot has transitioned from a central processing facility to become a satellite underground mine to King of the Hills, which is ~100 km's by road from Darlot.
The Darlot underground mine is now mining ~600ktpa, with the FIFO workforce residing in the modern Darlot camp. The transition to a medium-grade satellite mine has allowed for a step-change in Darlot's gold production, benefitting from the much larger and lower-cost process plant at King of the Hills.
The Darlot Process Plant was placed into care and maintenance in July 2022. The plant has a 1.0 Mtpa Carbon-in-Pulp (CIP) and Carbon-in-Leach (CIL) gold processing plant located on-site at Darlot.
Red 5 is also committed to building its Resource and Reserve base at Darlot and within the immediate surroundings. Reserve growth strategies include:
- Fully exploiting the current significant Darlot endowment (7 September 2023)
- Reserve 1.4Mt @ 2.5g/t Au for 114,000 ounces of contained gold
- Resource 16.6Mt @ 3.3g/t Au for 1.8Moz of contained gold
- Optimising existing assets
- In FY22, Darlot undertook an initial 12-month phase of underground mine development to establish new mining areas and reduce the reliance on remnant stopes
- Extension of existing Resources in the Darlot underground
- Exploration
- Step-out underground exploration using HiSeis 3D seismic data
- Exploration for open pit deposits within the Darlot and Ockerburry Hill tenements
- Regional bolt-on acquisitions
- In April 2020, Red 5 acquired the Great Western gold deposit, which is approximately 55km’s south of the Darlot Processing Plant. Open pit mining has since been undertaken at Great Western, and the company intends to evaluate the future underground potential at Great Western.
- In May 2020, Red 5 acquired the nearby Cables and Mission gold deposits (JORC 2004 Resources of 185koz).
- In April 2020, Red 5 acquired the highly prospective Emperor and King of the West tenements, both of which have historical workings that have yielded high gold grades.
- In November 2020, Red 5 signed a Farm-in Joint Venture Agreement with Ardea Resources Ltd (ASX: ARL) to earn up to an 80% interest in the Mt Zephyr and Darlot East Gold Projects, both located in close proximity to Darlot.
- Red 5 continues to evaluate other regional opportunities
For further information on Red 5’s operating strategy at the Darlot Gold Mine, refer to the Company’s recent ASX announcements and investor presentations.
See our latest Annual Report for JORC 2012 Resource and Reserve tables.