One of Australia’s largest gold mines, the Super Pit in Western Australia, has made headway on a new expansion.
The expansion, known as the Fimiston South project, is being prepared by Northern Star Resources for KCGM.
The Kalgoorlie-Boulder council has now unanimously approved road closures in the vicinity of the Super Pit in the latest update to the expansion. This will also see the mine life extended to 2034.
According to the ABC, Kalgoorlie-Boulder councillors voted 10–0 to approve the road closures.
Kalgoorlie-Boulder mayor John Bowler called the decision a “no-brainer”.
“If the counsellors had voted no it wouldn’t alter the mining, it would just mean that these formal roads would exist under a big pile of rock,” he said.
The Super Pit is Kalgoorlie’s largest employer, with over 1000 staff and contractors.
In addition to widening and deepening the open pit, the expansion will also relocate the Super Pit Lookout and construct a new noise bund.
“The whole idea of the bund is to cut down on noise and dust from the operations in the Super Pit; no bund and they’re more exposed to noise and dust,” Bowler said.
“The bund is there to protect residents from (noise).”
A new tailings storage facility will be constructed at the site this year, along with a bigger lookout.
Waste rock will be redeposited back into the Fimiston open pit or hauled to existing waste rock dumps.
Northern Star and KCGM also expanded the Super Pit back in 2020, which gave the mine another 15 years of life.