Northern Star Resources own KCGM. KCGM operations include the Fimiston Processing Plant adjacent to the Super Pit, located in Kalgoorlie, Western Australia.
The KCGM Growth Project will increase the throughput of the Fimiston Processing Plant from 13Mtpa to 25.5Mtpa. The capacity growth will be achieved with the installation of a new process plant circuit adjacent to, and connecting into, the existing Fimiston Processing Facility. Northern Star Resources (NSR) awarded Primero a 3+ year, Incentivised Target Cost EPC contract for the delivery of design, procurement and construction services for the processing plant upgrade.
Primero was initially engaged by NSR to complete an ECI for the project in 2022. NSR awarded Primero the contract based on Primero’s superior technical proposal, “Can Do” attitude, an aligned culture and a strong focus on the client relationship.
The expansion is a standard sulphide gold processing circuit consisting of a front-end primary crushing circuit, crushed ore stockpile, SAG and ball mill, cyclone classification circuit, gravity gold circuit, trash screens, flotation circuit, flotation tails thickening circuit, ultra-fine grind circuit, flotation tails carbon in leach circuit, flotation concentrate carbon in leach circuit (existing repurposed), tailings disposal pumps, upgrades to the existing gold room, and completely new reagent storage and distribution facilities.
The project encompasses 2 separable portions.
Separable portion 1 scope includes the design, procurement and construction of the following:
- Dry Plant – primary crushing (buried vault), crushed ore conveyor, tramp iron and stick removal, coarse ore stockpile feed conveyor, coarse ore stockpile cover, coarse ore stockpile, coarse ore stockpile reclaim vault and tunnels, reclaim feeders, emergency reclaim feeder and SAG mill feed conveyor to deliver crushed ore to the SAG mill.
- Wet Plant – all items necessary to process the crushed ore to recover gold and to dispose of tailings including grinding, pebble recycle crushing, classification, gravity recovery, flotation, flotation concentrate handling, flotation tails thickening, tailings disposal, reagents, consumables, services (air and water systems), and utilities.
- Earthworks – Detailed earthworks including, roads, pads, bollards, signage, buried services and drainage.
Separable portion 2 scope includes the design, procurement and construction of the following:
- Wet Plant – all items necessary to process, leach and recover gold from the total flotation tailings and total concentrate produced by the expanded plant at the Fimiston site. This includes concentrate handling, flotation tail leaching, associated reagents, consumables, services (air and water systems), and utilities.
- Earthworks – detailed earthworks including, roads, pads, bollards, signage, buried services and drainage.
SCOPE:
The scope of the EPC services includes:
- Project management including overall coordination of the works, contract administration (head contract, subcontracts, purchase orders), reporting, communications, management of correspondence, document control, project controls, estimating.
- Engineering including all discipline engineering, drafting, design, calculations and specifications of all technical requirements and deliverables required to supply and construct the works including completion of handover documentation to support NSRs operational readiness planning.
- Procurement including purchasing, vendor management, inspections, expediting, quality management and delivery of equipment and materials required to construct the works.
- Construction including the supply of all labour, supervision, plant and equipment necessary to construct the works. Supervision of all subcontractors, quality management, materials management and control, project controls, contract administration, project reporting, HSE management, HR/IR management, and liaison with Principal’s personnel.
- Commissioning work, construction verification checks and all stages of commissioning to bring the plant up to ready for ore status.
- Performance Testing.
HIGHLIGHTS:
- The largest project to be executed either by Primero or NSR.
- Site mobilisation commenced in Q1 2024, just 7 months after contract award, with the construction of the temporary site facilities.
- The first concrete pour a 530 cubic meter pour of the Primary Crusher vault raft was completed over a period of 14 hours later in Q1 2024.
- Construction works on the SAG Mill, and Ball Mill Foundations, Thickener Chamber, COS and pebble crushing has commenced, while works on the Primary Crusher vault walls continue.
- The first structural steel package for the Milling Area overhead crane structure has been issued for shop detailing and fabrication in China.
- A dedicated project design and management office established in the Perth CBD.
- Engineering and Design progress for Separable portion 1 is currently 60% complete, while separable portion 2 Engineering and Design progress is over 10% complete.
- The scope and commercial model, while not unique, is somewhat complex. It incorporates, 2 Separable Portions across both greenfield and brownfield scopes under both lump sum and incentivised target cost remuneration models.