Silver Lake Resources Performs First Gold Pour at Murchison Operations

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources Australia (Perth, Australia)--Silver Lake Resources (ASX:SLR) has performed its first gold pour at its Murchison Goldfield operations, located near the town of Cue, Western Australia. With the commencement of operations at Murchison, Silver Lake could be identified as one of Australia's largest gold producers, especially after its acquisition last year of Integra Mining, another gold miner.

Murchison Goldfields consists of 14 open pits and four underground mines. The processing plant facility is a conventional carbon-in-leach circuit, designed to process an estimated 1.2 million tons per year with its 500-ton-per-hour crushing facility. The plant also consists of a 10-MW, diesel-fired power station built, owned, operated and maintained by Zenith Pacific Pty Limited.

A 250-person accommodation facility was built last year in Cue for the operational staff of the mine. The development of the processing plant saw the involvement of Pacer Engineers (Perth), which undertook the design and construction of the facility. The total targeted production from Murchison operations is expected to be 100,000 ounces per year, which is expected to be achieved by 2014.

The project could add a copper processing facility in the future, which the processing plant has been designed to accommodate. However, further resource estimation and a scoping study will be conducted before this expansion is taken up.

Silver Lake owns three production and exploration projects in Western Australia, and its newly acquired Integra Mining has the Randalls Gold facility located near Kalgoorlie. The $426 million acquisition last year saw Silver Lake's total gold resources to be about 6.6 million ounces. The acquisition not only helped the company to internally fund growth plans through increased cash flows, but also provided operational flexibility and complementary skills sets.

"With the Murchison gold operations now in production, we have achieved another major milestone in our strategy," said Silver Lake Managing Director Les Davis. "We now have two production centres and three mills operating with an annualized capacity of 3.3 million tonnes being fed from multiple ore sources."

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