Kinross Gold Corp: Kettle River Operations

Above and beyond underground┬áKinross Gold Corp. recently began production again at its Kettle River site in Washington State. Keith Regan reveals how a long-stalled project got jump-started, and the people to do the work were close at hand when they were needed.  Kinross Gold Corp. controls a far-reaching network of active mining and exploration operations not only in North America but in Russia, Chile, Brazil and Ecuador. In North America, where it is the third-largest primary gold producer, it operates Fort Knox in Alaska, Round Mountain in Nevada and Kettle River in Washington State, where active mining got under way once again in the fall of 2008. Kettle River has been brought back to life by the opening of the Buckhorn Mine, a project that was in the planning stages for some 18 yearsÔÇömost of that time when it was owned by another company. According to Lauren Roberts, vice president and general manager for Kettle River operations, the previous owners had long tried to permit the site as an open-pit mining operation with an on-site mill and tailings disposal facility. ÔÇ£That met with a great deal of resistance from the local environmental community,ÔÇØ Roberts notes. After 14 years of trying to permit the site, it was sold to Kinross, which took a new approach. Instead of trying to pursue the open-pit and new facility design, Kinross proposed using underground mining techniquesÔÇöspecifically, a mechanized drift-and-fill techniqueÔÇöand to truck the ore to the existing Kettle River milling facility about 48 miles away. The approach had its tradeoffs, with Kinross having to take on additional trucking costs. At the same time, however, the alternative seemed to be a non-starter with Washington State regulators. ÔÇ£WeÔÇÖre good underground miners,ÔÇØ Roberts says. ÔÇ£By going from open pit to underground, the surface disturbance decreased significantly, and the consumptive water use dropped dramatically as well. That, combined with the fact that we were able to take advantage of an existing milling facility, was enough to get us over the hurdle with regulators. Ordinarily, you would have to weigh the economics of building a new facility versus the expense and time of trucking off-site, but in this case that really wasnÔÇÖt an option for us.ÔÇØ Roberts says the nearly 50-mile journey isnÔÇÖt unheard of in mining circles, and he personally worked on a site in Nevada where ore was trucked over 100 miles for processing. Final permits for Buckhorn were issued in April 2008, and work was quickly ramped up on construction preparation at the site. In the meantime, Kinross had commissioned upgrades to the milling facility itself, modernizing the facility during the lull before Buckhorn came online. A flotation circuit was also added to the facility, which will help boost mineral recovery rates by two percent. That work was done by workers that were kept on even as the mill was idled, a conscious decision that Kinross made to keep its best workers in-house, knowing it would need them when operations began to ramp up again. The top miners and mechanics were also kept on board to help wind down an earlier mineÔÇöknown as K2ÔÇöand given work helping to prepare the new site for active mining. ÔÇ£We did have a reduction in force, but we worked hard to keep the best people because we knew theyÔÇÖd be the nucleus of the new workforce,ÔÇØ says Roberts. The site now employs about 135 people, on its way to an expected peak employment of 180. The mine is believed to contain as much as two million tons of gold ore that should yield about one million ounces of gold, with an expected active mining lifespan of about eight years. Meanwhile, underground mining is enjoying a boom time in the Pacific Northwest, making talented miners a rare commodity. ÔÇ£Keeping that core team was important,ÔÇØ says Roberts. When operations picked up again, the firm reached out to workers who had been let go in 2005. Many had stayed in the area and found temporary work to make ends meet, knowing that active mining would commence before too long. Even some of those who had moved away after operations were idled have returned to Kinross. In addition to staffing up quickly, the mining company also needed to outfit its new underground mine with modern equipment. Doing so quickly was not an easy task, however, because the demand for such machinery was running so high. Kinross made the decision to remanufacture a significant part of its underground mining fleet, working with a Canada-based remanufacturing firm to retrofit and upgrade equipment already in the Kinross fleet rather than trying to source new hardware in a tight market. ÔÇ£We estimate that we saved about 25 percent on the cost, but even more important, we were able to deliver against our schedule and keep the project on track to get started with active mining this fall,ÔÇØ says Roberts. As it began to hire new workers, Kinross focused on hiring inexperienced workers who showed a strong work ethic and a commitment to safety. ÔÇ£We figure if they have those traits, they can be trained to do the functions we need them to complete,ÔÇØ Roberts says.Safety is something Kinross takes seriously, and its reputation for safety has earned it accolades from industry groups such as the National Mining Association. The safety program includes a mandate that anyone on the job site down to custodial staff is authorized to stop the work if they spot an unsafe condition and from there can take action to correct the problem or bring in supervisors to rectify the situation. Employees quickly get the message that the company takes safety seriously when mining work stops to correct a potential problem.┬á ÔÇ£Sometimes itÔÇÖs difficult to say weÔÇÖre going to scrap production for today to get this right,ÔÇØ Roberts says. ÔÇ£But employees see very quickly when that happens that weÔÇÖre not just talking the talk on safety but walking the walk.ÔÇØ┬á┬á ┬á