Fort Knox (100% ownership and operator) - USA

Kinross acquired the Fort Knox open pit mine, located near Fairbanks, Alaska, in 1998. The Fort Knox mine is located within the Fairbanks mining district, a northeast trending belt of lode and placer gold deposits that comprise one of the largest gold producing areas in the state of Alaska. Access to the Fort Knox mine from Fairbanks, Alaska is by 34 kilometers of paved highway and 8 kilometers of unpaved road. The area has a sub-arctic climate with long cold winters and short summers.

• Fort Knox Technical Report (PDF)

The Fort Knox deposit is mined by conventional open pit methods. Mining is carried out on a year-round basis, seven days a week and the mill has a daily capacity of between 33,000 and 45,000 tonnes per day. Ore from the Fort Knox mine is processed at Kinross’ carbon-in-pulp mill, which processes ore 24-hours per day, year-round and has a daily capacity of between 33,000 to 45,000 tonnes.

In February 2008, Kinross’ Board of Directors approved the construction of a heap leach facility and expansion of the open pit mine, known as the Phase 7 expansion.  Fort Knox currently mines and stockpiles large volumes of low grade ore and mineralized waste material that cannot be economically processed at the existing mill.  The heap leach facility will allow the mine to process some of these low-grade materials, as well as zones of lower-grade ore that have not yet been mined.

The Fort Knox Project is expected to extend the mine life of the mine from 2012 until 2018.  The project will double the life-of-mine production to 2.9 million gold ounces, and will increase Fort Knox production to an average 370,000 gold ounces per year during the five years commencing in 2010.  It will also reduce the average life-of-mine cost of sales to approximately $390 per ounce.  Production from the Phase 7 expansion project is expected to commence mid-2009.

Kinross Gold Corporation’s Share at December 31, 2008