The Keysbrook project covers a shallow orebody with an average depth of two metres, making it very simple to mine and rehabilitate.
Mining activity involves the stripping and stockpiling of topsoil and mining of ore to a depth of approximately 2 - 4 metres. The ore is loaded into a Mining Feed Unit (MFU) to separate out the rocks and debris, then pumped as a slurry to the wet concentrator plant First, top soil is removed and stored for rehabilitation. An excavator then removes the ore and stockpiles it next to the Mine Field Unit (MFU) for processing.
At the MFU, ore is mixed with water and passed over vibrating screens to remove coarse non-mineralised waste. The remaining mineralised ore is then pumped to the Wet Concentrator Plant (WCP) as a slurry.
Mining and tails/rehabilitation works are planned to be undertaken in Lot 63, to the West of current operations. The ore is extracted using an excavator and is transferred to the mobile screening plant using either a front-end loader or haul trucks. Tails/rehabilitation and road preparation/maintenance activities involve operation of the excavators, haul trucks dozers, graders and water trucks.
The locations and numbers of items of mobile equipment will vary. In order to represent a worstcase scenario, it is assumed that all available equipment will be operating simultaneously within 500m of the MFUs.
Mining operations are daytime hours only, between the hours of 7am and 6pm ........