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tuart Tonkin is still deciding whether Wall which was the catalyst for previous
Sit’s Darwin’s natural selection or the A new Star, owners Barrick Gold Corp and Newmont
Steven Bradbury Olympic strategy which Corp to sell their respective stakes in the
has him holding the reins at Northern Star mine and accessing the higher-grade
Resources Ltd, but what he knows for same vision ore identified at Golden Pike.
certain is the company is well on track to Initial development of the Fimiston
becoming a 2 mozpa gold producer. underground has begun but has not yet
Tonkin was recently appointed manag- been included in the company’s five-year
ing director of the world’s ninth largest plan for the Super Pit.
gold miner following the departures of “This is a very different asset to what
Bill Beament (Venturex Resources Ltd) we acquired 18 months ago,” Tonkin said.
and former Saracen Mineral Holdings “A century of mining has occurred on
boss Raleigh Finlayson, who is retiring this Golden Mile and we have now con-
from the board next month but will return solidated the gold mines that Alan Bond
as a non-executive director in April. did in 1989 under one single ownership,
It marks the start of a new chapter for and we’re investing in extending that.
Northern Star but for Tonkin, who served There is phenomenal opportunity here in
as chief executive for the five years prior the Goldfields.”
to his recent elevation, it remains busi- Tonkin also sang the praises of the
ness as usual. Stuart Tonkin company’s workforce at Pogo, many of
What has changed is the growth out- our mine lives, particularly adding and whom have contracted COVID-19 in the
look for some of the company’s major growing reserves and resources on a past 18 months. Despite those challeng-
operations, including the Kalgoorlie Su- per share basis. So, it’s very accretive es of social distancing and other preven-
per Pit and the Pogo mine in Alaska, with for shareholders.” tative measures to stop the spread of the
group production of 1.55-1.65 moz gold Northern Star’s ambition to grow its virus, the mine still achieved its FY2021
at an AISC of $1,475-1,575/oz guided for production profile will be underpinned guidance of 200,000oz.
FY2022. by its efforts to ramp up the output from “You could not comprehend the things
“Over the next five years, we will deliv- the Super Pit back to its historic highs of they’ve had to do just to keep the mine
er profitable growth to 2 mozpa,” Tonkin 700,000 ozpa by FY2028. running,” Tonkin said. “We’re still ex-
told Diggers & Dealers. Tonkin said the KCGM outfit which panding the plant to 1.3 mtpa and we’ll
“We now hold over 21 moz in reserves, runs the Super Pit was working tirelessly grow this asset out to 300,000oz within
we have 56 moz in resources and we to move away from a prolonged reliance two years.”
have a very proven track record of con- on processing of low-grade stockpiles. – Michael Washbourne
verting those resources and extending This includes fixing the collapsed East

Evolution eyes further consolidation

volution Mining Ltd executive chairman Anton Billis-chaired Tribune and Klein said Evolution is currently completing a feasi-
EJake Klein is confident a deal can be he was confident that positive relationship bility study on expanding the Mungari plant
struck with his company’s new JV part- would continue. to 4.2 mtpa.
ners Tribune Mining Ltd and Rand Mining “It definitely helps us in terms of the “The combination through the acqui-
Ltd at East Kundana about processing ore receptiveness to us taking over because sition makes industrial and commercial
through the Mungari mill. we’ve spent the last couple of years build- sense on every level, and the consolida-
Speaking to media via video link after ing a relationship with them,” Klein said. tion of the district is a game changer for
presenting virtually for the second year “We own 21% of Tribune and obviously Evolution and the Eastern Goldfields,”
in a row at Diggers & Dealers, Klein con- it was a precursor for us and our interest Klein said.
firmed his company had opened talks with in the assets. Effectively because of their “The tenements are contiguous and
both Tribune and Rand about redirecting cross holding in Rand, that gives us about most importantly we now have immediate
ore from East Kundana to Mungari instead another 11% in the EKJV, so that’s 51% access to significantly larger volumes of
of sending it to Kanowna Belle on the other plus another 10-11% through our holding higher-grade material and the opportunity
side of Kalgoorlie. in Tribune to extract material synergies that were just
It comes after Evolution entered an “We’ll be talking to Tribune about op- not available to either ourselves or North-
agreement with Northern Star Resources portunities…the first thing is treating their ern Star in the absence of this transaction.”
Ltd on the eve of the conference to pur- material at our mill, which I think is better One of Evolution’s foundation assets, Mt
chase the Kundana operations and the for both parties.” Carlton in Queensland, is understood to
51% interest in the East Kundana JV for Klein told delegates his company had be up for sale, but Klein declined to com-
$400 million cash. long coveted the Kundana assets held by ment on the process other than to say the
The package, all within 8km of Mungari, Northern Star and the acquisition had pro- mine “had a good last quarter”.
also includes certain tenements compris- pelled Mungari into the same echelon as
ing the Carbine project, as well as 75% of cornerstone assets Red Lake (Canada), – Michael Washbourne
the West Kundana JV. Cowal (New South Wales) and Ernest
Evolution is the major shareholder of the Henry (Queensland).

Page 32 SePTeMBeR 2021 aUSTRaLIa’S PaYDIRT