Kirkland Lake Gold’s Fosterville gold mine in Victoria has won the 2018 Australian Mining Prospect Awards Mine of the Year.
Fosterville, Victoria’s largest gold operation, has emerged as one of Australia’s standout mines after delivering outstanding performance from a production and exploration perspective in recent years.
Kirkland Lake produced 263,845oz of gold at 15.8g/t at Fosterville in 2017, a substantial improvement on the 151,755oz at 7.55g/t delivered in 2016.
In 2018, the company has continued its strong performance at Fosterville and is targeting between 275,000oz–300,000oz for the year.
Kirkland Lake is progressing growth projects at Fosterville to ramp up annual production to 400,000oz.
It is supporting these plans by continuing to deliver outstanding exploration results at the site.
In September, Kirkland Lake’s latest intercepts with extremely high grades included 289g/t gold over 7.45m, 144g/t over 11.9m, and 423g/t over 3.55m.
The Prospect Awards’ Lifetime Achievement Award has this year been won by Fortescue Metals Group founder and chairman Andrew Forrest.
Anglo American’s Moranbah North coal mine in Queensland backed up its great form at the Prospect Awards by taking out the Coal Mine of the Year and Minerals Processing of the Year awards.
A full list of this year’s award winners is included below. In the coming weeks Australian Mining will also feature in-depth profiles of each winner.
Prospect Awards 2018 – the winners:
Australian Mine of the Year (sponsored by Australian Mining)
Fosterville gold mine, Victoria, Kirkland Lake Gold
Lifetime Achievement Award (sponsored by Liebherr)
Andrew Forrest, Fortescue Metals Group
Safety Advocacy (sponsored by SICK)
Josh Bryant, General Manager – People and Risk, Mitchell Services
Community Interaction (sponsored by Safe to Work)
Roy Hill Community Foundation, Roy Hill
Contract Miner of the Year (sponsored by Epiroc)
Wolff Mining
Contribution to Mining (sponsored by BGC Contracting)
Maria Joyce, General Manager, MEC Mining
Hard Rock Mine of the Year (sponsored by Epiroc)
Fosterville gold mine, Victoria, Kirkland Lake Gold
Coal Mine of the Year (sponsored by SEW Eurodrive)
Moranbah North coal mine, Queensland, Anglo American
Excellence in Environmental Management (sponsored by Metso)
Rio Tinto
Excellence in Mine Safety, OH&S (sponsored by Flexco)
REDLINE Underground Conveyor System, Conveyor Manufacturers Australia
Mine Manager of the Year (sponsored by CRC Industries)
Elsabe Muller, Jimblebar mine General Manager, BHP
Minerals Processing of the Year (sponsored by Rockwell Automation)
Moranbah North CHPP, Queensland, Anglo American
Innovative Mining Solution (sponsored by Austmine)
Blast Movement Monitoring System, Blast Movement Technologies