Ramelius–Primero Mt Magnet expansion: throughput and scheduling notes for mine planners
Reviewed by Tom Sullivan
First reported on Australian Mining
30 Second Briefing
Ramelius Resources has awarded Primero Group the Mt Magnet expansion project in Western Australia, adding 3Mtpa of processing capacity to support its target of 500,000oz of gold production per year by FY30. The EPC-style contract, announced by parent company NRW Holdings, centres on upgrading the existing Mt Magnet plant rather than building a greenfield facility, leveraging current infrastructure and power. For mine planners and process engineers, the uplift in nameplate throughput will drive revised pit schedules, ore blending strategies and potential debottlenecking of crushing and grinding circuits.
Technical Brief
- Brownfield upgrade at Mt Magnet allows tie-in to existing power, water, access and tailings infrastructure.
- Contract structure likely shifts interface risk for process plant performance onto Primero under guaranteed throughput.
- Expansion will require reconfiguration of crushing and grinding circuits, with associated conveyor and transfer upgrades.
- Process plant changes will drive revised ROM pad management, ore stockpiling strategy and haulage fleet dispatch patterns.
- Debottlenecking works are expected around classification, pumping and thickening to match higher milling rates.
- For Ramelius, integrated scheduling across Mt Magnet and satellite pits becomes critical to maintain plant feed quality.
Our Take
In our database, Ramelius Resources features in several Western Australian gold items this year, including the Roe project’s streamlined EPA pathway, signalling that regulatory risk on its growth pipeline around Mt Magnet is relatively contained compared with many greenfield peers.
The Edna May Gold Project sale to Forrestania Resources earlier in 2026 freed Ramelius from a non-core asset, which likely supports capital redeployment into higher-return expansions such as the Mt Magnet processing uplift and the high-grade Never Never and Dalgaranga feed sources.
Primero’s role here follows multiple EPC wins for NRW Holdings’ subsidiaries in gold processing upgrades across Australia, suggesting Ramelius is tapping a contractor bench with recent, directly comparable plant expansion experience rather than taking on design–construct risk in-house.
Prepared by collating external sources, AI-assisted tools, and Geomechanics.io’s proprietary mining database, then reviewed for technical accuracy & edited by our geotechnical team.
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