Dreadnought

The Tindals Mining Centre at Coolgardie, in Western Australia's Eastern Goldfields, that includes the Dreadnought open pit gold mine, is owned by Focus Minerals Limited. A major shareholder in Focus Minerals is Shandong Gold, a subsidiary of one of China's three largest gold mining companies.

Focus Minerals Suspended Mining at the Dreadnought Mine in 2013
In 2013 Focus took the strategic decision to suspend all its gold mining operations, including the Dreadnought mine, because of the volatile gold price and a need to lower its operating costs. The suspension of its mining operations is to give Focus Minerals Limited time to restructure its operations in order for it to establish a low cost mining structure going forward. The company plans to re-start its gold mining operations again in two years time.

The Dreadnought, Big Blow and Empress Open Pits Were to be Developed Together
In 2011 Focus Minerals Limited began the year with only one operating gold mine at the Tindals Mining Centre. This was soon joined by the beginning of production at another mine, The Mount, followed by the development of three open pit operations; the Dreadnought, Big Blow and Empress.
The company was also planning to develop 10 other deposits as open pits within the two kilometre wide and five kilometre long Tindals Mining Centre.

Dreadnought Mine Planned to Increase Focus's Overall Gold Production
The open pit developments, that included the Dreadnought Mine, were planned to increase the gold production of the Tindals Mining Centre by 30,000 ounces of gold a year, as well as increase its open pit probable gold reserve by 31 percent. To this end Focus began exploratory drilling to determine the viability of mining additional orebodies suitable for open pit mining. The development of the Dreadnought Mine was an important step in achieving these objectives.

Dreadnought Mine Part of Focus Minerals Third Leg Growth Strategy
The development of the Dreadnought, and the other two open pit mines, were part of the third leg of the Focus Minerals Limited steadily growing gold production strategy, building on the production capacity of its existing underground operations. The three open pits provided Focus Minerals with low cost production withing five kilometres of its Three Mile Hill gold processing plant that is located at Coolgardie. It was an important plank in the company's progress towards ramping up gold production in reaching 100,000 ounces in 2011 and 130,000 in 2012.

The development of the Dreadnought, Big Blow and Empress open cut mines coincided with an increase in open pit probable reserves to 505,000 tonnes of mineralised ore grading at 2.14 grams of gold a tonne, representing a total of 34,700 ounces of gold.

Focus Minerals are currently focusing on an exploration program that will identify a sustainable gold reserve that will be capable of providing a minimum three years of mining confidence. The Tindals Mining Centre is currently being targeted to determine ore bodies with sufficient high grade to withstand any future down turn in the gold price.

Three Mile Hill Gold Processing Plant is a Key Asset
While exploration drilling is being carried out at the Tindals Mining Centre, the Focus Minerals gold processing plant, Three Mile Hill, remains the company's key asset as it continues to be available for use by other developers in the area because of it being the only operating gold treatment mill within a 100 kilometres radius.
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