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International mining giant Gold Fields is backing continued solid WA production, particularly at St Ives near Kambalda, with their 2012 Invincible find set to drive mining at the site for at least the next 20 years.
Executive vice-president of the company’s Australian operations, Stuart Mathews, said despite a new project in Canada, and operations on two other continents, WA remained the company’s main money maker.
Mr Mathews said this was largely because of the Invincible discovery at St Ives which was expected to continue to underpin the future, with the size of the deposit still not fully known and ready to be explored.
“We don’t know how big this (Invincible) is going to be, it’s that good,” he said.
“It was an exciting discovery at a time when we were probably in a bit of strife at St Ives.
“Interestingly, the discovery hole was already being drilled back in 1993, before we were even here, but it took some fresh eyes and exploration to realise ‘oh that looks interesting’. (We) started drilling around it and we’ve got this amazing body.”
Mr Mathews told the Kalgoorlie Miner the four WA sites — Agnew near Leinster, Granny Smith south of Laverton, Gruyere east of Laverton and St Ives near Kambalda — were the most productive in their international brand.
“Even though we’re part of a much greater company — like globally we are about the seventh or eighth in the world — the Australia region is absolutely relevant for Gold Fields because it’s the biggest producer of ounces,” he said.
“It produces almost 1.1 million ounces a year of gold for the company, which is about 45 per cent of the production company globally.
“We’re absolutely relevant, so we’re not going anywhere. We’ve got four great assets in the region . . . we’re investing in heavily and they continue to deliver extensive life of mine profiles, so we now have visibility well into the 2030s and 2040s.
“We’ve just started an entry into Canada, which is a major step for us to get into that jurisdiction. We’ve got in at the asset level, and it’s still in project phase, but we will take that through to production.”
With decarbonisation, Mr Mathews said the company’s road to meeting their targets was made a little easier because the underground sites — excluding Gruyere — didn’t use much diesel.
He said the major micro-grid at Gold Fields Agnew was the starting point for their journey into renewables, with an expansion of the already massive solar grid planned for this year.
It inspired the solar and wind projects at the other sites, with a feasibility study into St Ives future renewables plant in progress.
The 2½-year project is expected to include a 40MW solar farm and a 60MW wind farm to provide up to 80 per cent of energy at the site.
“We’ve been looking at innovative ways to decarbonise the mines further by electrifying the mines and getting some sort of automation around material movement, and taking trucks out of business — that’s a longer-term plan,” Mr Mathews said.
The Australian operations employ about 2000 people directly, with more than 1600 contractors also working across the four sites.
Those sites boast a more than 25 per cent female workforce, and are part of the six legacies programs set to one day benefit host communities.
Despite the positives at the St Ives site, a death in October last year served as a stark reminder about the importance of mine safety.
“We’ve been in Australia for 22 years, without a fatality, and we had a fatality in October last year,” Mr Mathews said.
“That absolutely rattled our core businesses. The people that are involved here, those are really good people that we have at St Ives and that’s tragic.”
Mr Mathews said Gold Fields’ focus on environmental, social, and corporate governance values started before ESG targets became a buzzword, with the company best placed to deliver on their targets in the coming years.
