The Company continues to develop the mine’s potential for a significant mine life extension and production expansion. At year-end 2016, Kinross doubled Bald Mountain’s proven and probable mineral reserve estimates to 2.1 Au Moz., adding a total of 1.24 Au Moz. The Company continues to make excellent progress on the Vantage Complex project located in the south area of the property.
Construction at the Vantage project is well underway, on schedule and on budget. Commissioning for the heap leach pad and processing facilities is expected to commence in Q1 2019, with ore from the Vantage Complex expected to be encountered by year-end 2018. The heap leach pad and associated processing facilities and infrastructure is expected to accommodate a total capacity of 68 million tonnes of ore.
Exploration
During 2017, exploration at Bald Mountain focused on near term opportunities that are expected to have a direct impact on operational planning, as well as growing existing mineral resource estimates and defining future opportunities within the large Bald Mountain land package (see Appendix A: Figure 4).
Initial results from the 2018 $10-million Bald Mountain drilling program have been encouraging. A total of approximately 18,300 metres was drilled in first half of 2018, mainly focusing on the north area of the property. Kinross is analyzing the results and continuing the program with the goal of potential mineral resource additions and mineral reserve conversions at year end from the Top, Redbird and Winrock deposits.
Please see Appendix A - Figures 4, 5 and 6.