St ives project

The St Ives Gold Mine in the Eastern Goldfields of Western Australia is located 80 kilometres to the south of the gold mining centre of Kalgoorlie. It is owned by South African gold mining company Gold Fields Limited who acquired it from Western Mining Corporation Resources (WMC) in 2001. It produces more than 450,000 ounces of gold a year which means it is one of Australia's major gold producers.

The St Ives Project Covers Both Underground and Open Pit Mining

The St Ives Project is both an open pit and underground gold mining operation with more than 1,000 employees, including contractors, who are employed in mining, operating the SAG (grinding) mill, heap leaching and at utilising CIP (carbon-in-pulp) technology in gold recovery. Employees of the St Ives Project live in either Kalgoorlie or Kambalda and work to a number of different roster arrangements, depending on which department of the operation you are employed in.

Leighton Contractors Chosen as Mine Operator

The St Ives project has had close association with Leighton Contractors since 2002, a leading Australian mining contractor. Leighton Contractors are currently responsible for the operation and management of 10 open pits that make up the much of the St Ives Project. The open cut mining operations contributing more than 270,000 ounces of gold to a total project production of around 500,000 ounces a year.

Leighton Contractors were initially awarded a two year contract to manage and operate the St Ives surface operations with the construction of 10 open pits. Their work included excavation of waste materials and ore, maintaing the haulage roads, building and maintenance of stockpiles, the creation of waste dumps as well as the construction of a causeway, de-watering and drainage infrastructure relating to the open pits. The company also took on the role of being a joint venture partner in the building of a new gold processing mill at the site.

In 2004 Leighton Holdings were awarded and extension of their contract to last right through for the life-of-the-mine. The management and operation the St Ives Gold Project on behalf of Gold Fields is undertaken by Leighton Holdings' fully owned subsidiary HWE Mining. HWE Mining operate the project 365 days a year, 24 hours a day with a staff of 170 people.

Leighton Holding Subsidiary HWE Mining is the 'Man-on-the- Ground' at St Ives

The management arrangement allows Leighton Holdings, through its subsidiary HWE Mining, to carry out any innovative mining techniques at the St Ives Project it sees necessary in order to maintain continuity of operations and flexibility in an environment of change. This has allowed both Gold Fields and Leighton Holdings to reduce costs and better meet objectives. This is shown to be working with the St Ives Project doubling it production rate.

As at January 2012 HWE Mining provided the following equipment for use at the St Ives project:

- CAT 14G graders

- Two CAT 16G graders

- Four CAT

- D10R crawler tractors

- Hitachi EX1900 hydraulic excavator

- Four Hitachi EX2500 hydraulic excavators

- One

- Hitachi EX1200 hydraulic excavator

- 16 CAT 785 dump trucks

- One Franna MAC-20 4X4 crane

- The St Ives Project has mining tenements covering a total area of around 104,509 hectares in its immediate area.