North Kalgurli Mines Fimiston Leases Expansion

The Fimiston Project is part of the "Big Pit" development on the famous Golden Mile. Fluor Daniel Wright provided the overall project management along with a comprehensive scope of services.

The Fimiston expansion comprised of three major capital projects: the Fimiston Mill, the Gidji Roaster and the Saline Water System.

Fluor provided procurement, construction and commissioning management of all facilities, along with the design engineering of the saline water system.

Client's Challenge

The Fimiston Expansion project was sanctioned to allow the client to achieve a major reduction in operating costs and drive a corresponding increase in profits. The physical distance between the three construction sites, along with the remote location and harsh weather and environmental condition added to the project's complexity.

Fluor's Solution

Fimiston Mill

Located on the eastern edge of the Golden Mile, the main gold milling process plant includes coarse ore crushing, fine ore crushing, screening, milling, flotation, filtration, tailings leach, carbon-in-pulp gold recovery and peripheral reagents, water management and tailings disposal systems.

Saline Water System

Saline process water is extracted from 15 bores in the Gidji Paleo Channel stretching 25km northeast from the roaster site. The borefield delivers saline water to a holding dam at the roaster and a transfer system pumps the water 20km to a storage dam at Fimiston.

Gidji Roaster

The satellite roaster plant, located 20 km north of Kalgoorlie, receives gold concentrate filter cake by road transport from the Fimiston mill. It includes a circulating fluid bed roaster which calcines the concentrate to eliminate sulphur, calcine leach, carbon-in-pulp and peripheral reagents, water management and tailings disposal systems.

Loaded carbon from the leach circuit is transported back to Fimiston for elution and gold recovery. It was the first commercial gold circulating fluid bed roaster in the world. An identical second roaster unit has been constructed at Gidji.

Conclusion

The Fimiston Expansion project was successfully commissioned with both the mills and roaster sites achieving their design throughput capacity. This enabled the client to achieve a major reduction in operating costs and a corresponding increase in profits.