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Vault Minerals (ASX:VAU) has this week begun the final stages of commissioning of the stage one plant upgrade at the King of the Hills (KoTH) gold project, with the first stage of the Western Australian plant upgrade designed to increase throughput capacity to 6.0 million tonnes per annum (mtpa).
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On target and budget, Vault has already completed installation of a new primary crusher and the extension of the conveyor belt to tie in the new crushing facility with the existing plant. Vault’s MD, Luke Tonkin, today said the first ore is expected to be fed to the new crusher on March 31, CY26.
The existing crusher has already been taken offline, on March 24, with crushed stocks of around 90,000 tonnes on the ground. These are expected to provide uninterrupted mill feed before the crusher ore commissioning.
Tie-in of wet plant upgrades, including four additional CIL tanks, a larger regeneration kiln and a new tailings booster pump, is complete and performing well, too. A power station upgrade has also just been wrapped up, with the recent commissioning of two additional gas-fired gensets.
The KoTH power station is gas-fired with a three-year gas supply agreement at a CPI-linked fixed price, which commenced back in January CY26.
Meanwhile, the stage two upgrade is progressing on time and budget, with completion and tie‐in remaining on schedule for Q2 FY27. Stage two will deliver increased plant capacity of 7.5 to 8.0 Mtpa throughout H2 FY27.
Mr Tonkin said the plant upgrade will increase throughput capacity by around 50% at a highly competitive capital intensity of $57 per tonne of increased annual throughput capacity. As of February 28, Vault had stockpiles of approximately 15M tonnes at KoTH containing around 180K ounces.
“Stockpiles are located adjacent to the processing facility and provide significant operational flexibility to maintain base load mill feed under a range of operating scenarios, which may be required to be implemented to mitigate the risk of supply disruptions of key operational inputs due to the current tensions in the Middle East,” Mr Tonkin said.
Vault Minerals announced in November CY25 that it would transition load and haul operations at the King of the Hills open pit to an owner-operator model, commencing January 1, CY27, following the scheduled expiry of the current mining services contract on December 31, CY26.
This strategic shift followed a rigorous tender process undertaken in parallel with a detailed assessment of the owner-operator model for KoTH.
VAU is down -0.38%, to $3.98.
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