Finding value outside of the original project scope

St. Ives Gold Mine Closure

The St. Ives Gold Mine (SIGM) is owned by Gold Fields Limited and located approximately 50 kilometers south of Kalgoorlie, Australia. In 2015, Gold Fields was preparing to shutdown SIGM, and they engaged our Australian office to serve as their closure planning partner. Our role? To deliver a comprehensive revision of the entire closure plan and undertake all associated technical studies.

At 75,000 hectares, SIGM is a complex mine site comprising 45 mine pits, 21 waste landforms, 5 tailings storage facilities, a heap leach facility, and 63 stockpiles. Completed in 2016, more than 50 Stantec staff and 3 sub-consultants were involved over the project’s 18-month lifecycle. Not only did we complete our work on time and on budget, but we added value outside of the original scope to save Gold Fields even more funds.

The best part? The project culminated in the development of a new Mine Closure Plan (MCP), which was submitted to the Western Australia Department of Mines and Petroleum. The new MCP incorporates regulatory compliance, data gap analysis, mine rehabilitation audit and monitoring, environmental assessments, conceptual landform design and infrastructure demolition processes, amongst others.