Cue

Westgold’s operations around the regional town of Cue encompass the historic mining centres of Big Bell, Cuddingwarra, Day Dawn and Tuckabianna. This includes two of Western Australia’s most historic and iconic gold producing mines in Big Bell (≈2.6Moz) and Great Fingall (≈1.2Moz).

Great Fingall - An Exciting New Chapter

The assets incorporate the 1.2-1.4Mtpa Tuckabianna processing hub, a 148-person village at Big Bell, a 266-person village at Cue and associated mining infrastructure to support a large FIFO and DIDO mining operation.

In FY23, the Tuckabianna plant received underground ore from the large Big Bell underground mine and the smaller Comet underground mine in addition to stockpiled ore from the previously mined Cuddingwarra open pits.

The Tuckabianna processing hub treated 1,328,159t of ore, at the upper range of the plant’s operating capacity on hard ore and in line with expectations. The hub produced 90,769oz of gold in FY23, achieving a metallurgical recovery of 87%.

Big Bell remained the primary source of ore to the Tuckabianna mill, with the Comet underground mine providing additional feed early in the year, prior to entering care and maintenance. In addition to fresh underground feed, Westgold has access to significant ore stockpiles which it continued to use as supplementary ore feed at its Cue and Meekatharra processing hubs.

Since commercial production was declared in FY22, the Big Bell mine has consistently produced above its designed capacity of 800-900ktpa. In FY23, Big Bell continued to expand, producing 1.13Mt of high-grade ore at 2.6g/t.

In November 2023, the Board approved expansion of Big Bell to the zone beneath the existing sub level cave using an open stoping with paste fill mining method. This zone is expected to extend the overall mine life of Big Bell to more than 16 years while simultaneously increasing the mined grade.

The Fender underground mine, which was paused in early FY23, recommenced in October 2023, providing additional feed to the Meekatharra processing hub. This mine operates as an extension to the Big Bell mine given its close proximity and ability to leverage Big Bell infrastructure.

Cue also hosts the Day Dawn mining centre, consisting of Great Fingall and Golden Crown, Westgold's next mine in its portfolio of organic growth prospects. Production from Great Fingall is expected to commence in the first half of FY25, with the decline development having commenced in October 2023. Great Fingall will be a long-life, high-grade, high-margin underground mine, producing more than 45,000oz a year at steady state.