Round Mountain (50% ownership and operator) - USA

Kinross acquired its 50% ownership interest in the Round Mountain open pit mine and became the operator upon completion of the combination with Echo Bay on January 31, 2003. An affiliate of Barrick Gold Corporation owns the remaining 50% interest in the joint venture known as the Smoky Valley Common Operation.

• Round Mountain Technical Report (PDF)

The Round Mountain gold mine is an open pit mining operation located 96 kilometers north of Tonopah in Nye County, Nevada, and is supported by the local communities of Hadley and Carvers, which provide most of the housing for mine personnel.  

The first gold production from the Round Mountain District occurred in 1906 and in 2006 the mine reached a milestone of 10 million ounces poured.  

The Round Mountain mine currently operates a conventional open pit that is approximately 2,500 meters long in the north-west, south-east direction and 1,500 meters wide (north-east to south-west). The mining is conducted on 10.7 meter benches by electric shovels and front end loaders paired with 136,172 and 218 tonne haul trucks.  

The Round Mountain operation uses conventional open-pit mining methods and recovers gold using four independent processing operations. These include crushed ore leaching (reusable pad), run-of-mine ore leaching (dedicated pad), milling and the gravity concentration circuit. Most of the ore is heap leached, with higher grade oxidized ores crushed and placed on the reusable pad. Lower grade ore, ore removed from the reusable leach pad and stockpiled ore that was previously leached are placed on the dedicated pad.

Kinross Gold Corporation’s Share at December 31, 2008