Summary

Mine Type	Open Pit & Underground
Status	Active
Commodities	Gold
Mining Method	Truck & Shovel / Loader Longhole open stoping Airleg stoping
Backfill type	...
Production Start	...
Mine Life	...
Snapshot	The King of the Hills (KOTH) Gold Mine comprises a centralised processing hub, which is fed by three mines: KOTH Open Pit; KOTH Underground; and Darlot Underground, a satellite mine 100 kilometres north of KOTH. Darlot ore is being hauled to and treated at the KOTH processing plant. Darlot's 1.0Mtpa processing plant went into care and maintenance in July 2022. Vault Minerals will expand the King of the Hills processing facility to a six-million-tonne-per-annum (Mtpa) capacity. The expansion focuses on building a new single-stage primary gyratory crushing circuit. Construction is scheduled to begin in April 2025, with commissioning expected in the fourth quarter of FY26.
Related Asset	Darlot Mine

Deposit type

• Vein / narrow vein
• Breccia pipe / Stockwork

Summary:

King of the Hills (KOTH) mine
The King of the Hills mineralisation is considered to be part of an Archaean orogenic gold deposit with many similar characteristics to other gold deposits within the Eastern Goldfields of the Yilgarn Craton. Gold mineralisation is associated with sheeted and stockwork quartz vein sets within a hosting granodiorite stock and pervasively carbonate altered ultramafic rocks. Mineralisation is thought to have occurred within a brittle/ductile shear zone, with the main thrust shear zone forming the primary conduit for the mineralising fluids. Pre-existing quartz veining and brittle fracturing of the granite created a network of second-order conduits for mineralising fluids. Brittle fracturing along the granodiorite contact generated radial tension veins perpendicular to the orientation of the granodiorite, and zones of quartz stockwork. These stockwork zones are seen in both the granodiorite and ultramafic units and contain mineralisation outside the modelled continuous vein system (High Grade Veins)

Gold appears as free particles (coarse gold) or associated with traces of base metals sulfides (galena, chalcopyrite, pyrite) intergrown within quartz along late-stage fractures. Mineralisation of HGV domains are defined by quartz veining, occurrence of sulfides (galena, chalcopyrite, and pyrite) and elevated gold grade (>0.5 g/t). Mineralisation of stockwork zones (bulk domains) is defined by stockwork quartz veining along the contact of the granodiorite/ultramafic and captures all drill intercepts in the deposit.

The main factors affecting continuity are structural offset quartz veining within the hosting granodiorite stock and the pervasively altered ultramafic rocks, and proximity to the granodiorite as mineralisation extends into the altered ultramafic rocks.

Potassic alteration in the form of sericite is occasionally associated with mineralisation within the granite, while fuchsite is often present in mineralised parts of the ultramafic rocks.

The existence of these tension veins has been validated by current underground development and recent drilling and assay of historical information. Mineralisation is over 3.7 km by length up to 770 m wide at the top of the granodiorite/ultramafic contact where the mineralisation is subhorizontal. Along the eastern contact in the northern half, the subvertical mineralisation is drilled down to a depth of approximately 590 m and the southern half mineralisation has been drilled to approximately 250 m below surface. Mineralisation is still open down dip on the eastern contact and down plunge along the northern contact.

Darlot mine
Darlot lies at the southern end of the south-southeast trending Yandal Greenstone Belt, a deformed and metamorphosed late Archaean volcano-sedimentary succession of which the eastern and western contacts are fault bound, characterised by strong deformation, metamorphism to lower amphibolite facies and characterised by interweaving of granite and greenstone rock units.

The mine sequence dips 30° to 50° northeast along the southwestern limb or a 3 km wavelength, open, north-northwest plunging syncline. This bimodal volcano-sedimentary succession is intruded by pre-deformational differentiated Mount Pickering dolerite sills and by several late-tectonic intrusions.

Gold mineralisation is associated with quartz veins and alteration haloes controlled by major structures or secondary splays and cross-linking structures. The Darlot deposit has been differentiated into two separate entities: the Darlot lodes and Centenary orebody. The Centenary orebody is located some 1.2 km east of the Darlot open pit and down dip from the Darlot lode extensions.

In the Darlot lodes, gold mineralisation occurs within and around quartz laminar and sheeted quartz veins in local dilation zones along the Darlot Thrust, in addition to subhorizontal extensional quartz veins in felsic volcanic and intrusive rocks above the thrust.

The Centenary orebody has been defined from approximately 150 m to 700 m below surface. Gold mineralisation occurs within subhorizontal to 20° west dipping stacked quartz veins bound to the west by the Oval Fault and to the east by the Lords Fault.

Several mineralisation styles are evident at Darlot and include:
- Centenary (bulk): sheeted flat extension quartz veining (dipping 10° west) with sericite - ankerite-pyrite-gold-chlorite alteration which represents approximately 70% of the Centenary orebody
- Walters (Quartz reef): forms within reverse faults as laminated quartz veins (dips 45° west) locally brecciated with crack-seal texture and ranging from 0.5 to 5 m in width
- Lords South Flats (flat): flat lying quartz breccia veining; sericite/silica alteration proximal to veining within magnetic dolerites and high pyrite percentage (mainly disseminated)
- Lords South Main (hanging wall/footwall halo): mineralisation hosted in felsic rock types; Lords fault structure (laminated quartz veins) runs through the area, locally brecciated crack-seal textures, with the alteration halo mainly restricted to the footwall; haematite alteration with stockwork and high coarse pyrite percentages
- Oval Flats (flat): flat lying extensional veining, albite+ haematite alteration proximately to veining within magnetic dolerite and felsic; high pyrite percentage (mainly disseminated).
- Oval Main (hanging wall/footwall halo): mineralisation hosted in magnetic dolerite + intruded felsic rock types in Oval Fault footwall and hanging wall; Oval Fault sheared quartz and carbonate veins locally brecciated crack-seal textures, with the alteration halo mainly restricted to the hanging wall; albite + haematite alteration with extensional veining and disseminated pyrite.

Mining Methods

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Comminution

Crushers and Mills

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Processing

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Commodity Production

Commodity	Units	2025	2024	2023	2022	2021	2020	2019	2018	2016	2015
Gold	koz	....	....	....	....	....	....	102**	48**	9.1	50

Operational metrics

Metrics	2024	2023	2022	2020	2019	2016	2015
Annual processing capacity	....	....	....
Ore tonnes mined	....	....	....	....	403 kt		457 kt
Waste OP	....	....	....	....
Tonnes milled	....	....	....	....		76 kt	392 kt

Personnel

Job Title	Name	Profile	Ref. Date
.......................	.......................		Oct 14, 2024
.......................	.......................		Oct 8, 2024
.......................	.......................		Oct 14, 2024
.......................	.......................		Oct 15, 2024
.......................	.......................		Oct 15, 2024

Employees	Year
......	2023
......	2021
......	2020
......	2019
......	2018
......	2017