Kinross Gold Corp. | Company Profile

About The Company

Kinross Gold Corporation was established in 1993 and has since grown to become the third largest primary gold producer in North America by reserves.  Based in Canada, with nine mines in stable countries including the United States, Brazil, Chile and Russia, Kinross employs more than 5,000 people worldwide.

Kinross’ core purpose is to lead the world in generating value through mining.  With a growing reserve base, production that is expected to increase 60% over 2007 levels by 2009 and cash costs that are expected to improve as the new growth projects come into production, Kinross is uniquely positioned among major gold producers to continue generating superior value for shareholders.

Kinross’ strategic focus is to deliver disciplined growth that increases margins and cash flow per share by executing against the Four-Point Plan: delivering solid performance from our assets; focusing on best talent and best teams; establishing the building blocks for the future; and driving future value.

Kinross maintains listings on the Toronto Stock Exchange (symbol: K) and the New York Stock Exchange (symbol: KGC).

The Projects

Fort Knox (100% ownership and operator) | Flagship Project

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.

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.

Round Mountain (50 % ownership and operator)

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.

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.

In addition to the Fort Knox Project and the Round Mountain Project, this map shows where the other operations and exploration projects of Kinross are located!

Exploration

Kinross’ exploration efforts were combined with corporate development to form a new strategic development group in 2007, and the exploration strategy was given renewed focus.  Kinross Gold was active on more than 25 exploration projects in 2007, including the following:

• Mine site exploration programs were successfully concluded at Fort Knox (contributing 1.2 million ounces to year-end reserves), Paracatu (adding 1.6 million ounces to year-end reserves) and Buckhorn.

• At Kinross’ 49% owned Cerro Casale property, one of the largest undeveloped gold-copper properties in the world, core drilling and metallurgical test work continued.

• Exploration activities were initiated on the 42,560-hectare Kupol East and Kupol West properties, where 5,018 metres of drilling were completed, and mapping and geochemical analysis were initiated on 14 targets.

• At Round Mountain, after an extensive program of underground drilling and sampling, it was agreed that the results were insufficient to warrant future development as a stand-alone underground mine, and exploration efforts were redirected to other targets within the property.

• Early-stage generative exploration activities were initiated in Ecuador with staking and earn-in arrangements covering approximately 20,000  hectares.

Focused Exploration Strategy

 In 2008, the strategy is to increase the focus on greenfield exploration and project generation activities.  Specific objectives include upgrading the project pipeline, executing on existing greenfield projects, and replacing production depletion from operating mines.

The total planned exploration budget for 2008 is $49 million allocated to the following regions:

• Andean countries – 29%

• North America – 20%

• Brazil – 17%

• Corporate exploration activities (including Mexico) – 20%

For more detailed information about the projects and the company in general, please visit the website of Kinross Gold Corp.!

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