St Ives gold mine - Brief history
Gold was discovered at Kambalda Red Hill camp in 1897 and during the following 10 years other gold-bearing locations, such as Victory, were discovered. An estimated 31koz of gold was produced from the area.
In 1981, the Victory-Defiance complex (Leviathan area) was discovered. Gold production commenced at St Ives using a 0.5Mtpa treatment plant (later expanded to 1.2Mtpa). In 1988, a new 3.1Mtpa CIL facility was constructed at St Ives.
During 2001, a 2.0Mtpa heap leach facility was commissioned during the period when Gold Fields Limited acquired St Ives. In 2004, the 4.7Mtpa Lefroy mill was constructed and fully commissioned in early 2005.
In the period 2007 to 2012 a number of economic deposits were discovered and mining commenced. These include: Cave Rocks (2007), Belleisle (2007), Hamlet (2009), Athena (2010) and Invincible (2012).
Production from the Neptune palaeochannel open pit commenced in 2013. Following a hiatus in 2015 while Reserves were expanded, production recommenced in 2015.
The ongoing exploration strategy delivered the Invincible camp in 2013, which remains the mainstay of mine production. First production from Invincible started in Q1 2015. In 2017, development commenced into the Invincible underground deposit. Exploration on the extensions to the Invincible deposit will continue in 2018.