Musselwhite (31.93% ownership) - Canada

Kinross acquired its ownership interest in the Musselwhite underground mine, upon completion of the combination with TVX on January 31, 2003. In May of 2006, Goldcorp acquired Placer Dome’s interest and became the operator. The Musselwhite property is located in the Patricia Mining District of northwestern Ontario. The mine lies in the Opapimiskan Lake area, approximately 76 kilometers southeast of the First Nations community of Round Lake (Weagamow), 130 kilometers north of the town of Pickle Lake, Ontario and 430 kilometers northwest of Thunder Bay, Ontario. Commercial production began on April 1, 1997.

The Musselwhite mill circuit uses a fairly standard approach with fine crushing/rod milling/ball milling to prepare the ore to the correct size. For the actual recovery of gold, gravity is used to scalp coarse gold from the ball milling circuit into a intensive cyanide leach system. The gravity tails are sent to conventional cyanide leaching which dissolves the remainder of the recoverable gold. Carbon is used to recover gold from leaching and after the stripping and electrowinning processes, a gold doré is produced.

In 1962, two Ontario prospectors, Harold and Allan Musselwhite, discovered a gold-bearing quartz vein on the north shore of Lake Opapimiskan and in 1973, they obtained sufficient financing to carry out exploration on a relatively small scale. Exploration continued until 1980, during which time several small zones of gold mineralization were discovered.

By the end of 1992, 12 zones of gold mineralization had been identified. The main Musselwhite deposit is a long narrow band that starts near the surface of Snoppy Pond, then plunges northwest to about 200 meters below surface at the edge of Lake Opapimiskan, reaching about 400 meters below surface under the lake.

A 1993 work program focused on a new exploration strategy which was to improve the tonnage rather than the grade of material, thereby creating a much larger inventory of contained gold. In early 1993, this inventory amounted to 1.3 million ounces of gold.

A 1994 work program included infill surface drilling, dewatering the underground workings, driving an access ramp to the T-Antiform Zone and underground diamond drilling. Drifts and raises were positioned along the mineralized zones to gather detailed geological and engineering information. Construction of the ramp and related underground work were completed to enable the detailed drilling and sampling necessary to upgrade the measured and indicated resource estimate.

Total costs for the 1995 program were approximately $15 million and included the construction of a 45-kilometer all-weather road to the property and a feasibility study which was completed in the first quarter of 1996 when a production decision was made.

Selected Production and Operating Information

Mineral Reserve and Resource Summary
Kinross Gold Corporation’s Share at December 31, 2005