Kingsgate Consolidated has received approval from Thailand’s Board of Investment for a Zone 3 investment promotion package for Kingsgate’s planned Chatree North processing plant at its openpit gold operations in central Thailand. Based on this approval, engineering and construction contracts are being finalized, and construction has begun.

Ivanhoe Mines has released a new, independent integrated development plan (IDP-10) for the Oyu Tolgoi copper-gold project in southern Mongolia that includes two complementary development scenarios. A reserve case is based only on current proven and probable reserves, which would sustain mining for 27 years. A life-of-mine sensitivity case is based on reserves plus inferred resources and projects a mine life of 59 years. In both cases, the average production at Oyu Tolgoi over the first 10 years of operation would exceed 544,000 mt/y of copper and 650,000 oz/y of gold.

Red 5 Limited, a Western Australia-based gold exploration company listed on the ASX, has awarded TWP Australia the EPCM contract to develop the plant and associated infrastructure at the Siana gold project in the Surigao gold district of the Philippines. Red 5 holds a 90% interest in the project.

Despite adverse recent weather conditions, gold production at G-Resources Group’s Martabe gold project in North Sumatra, Indonesia, is still targeted for 2011 at a rate of 250,000 oz/y gold and 2 to 3 million oz/y of silver at an anticipated cash cost of $280/oz of gold. The company said unusually high rainfall has resulted in a review of the best location for certain facilities at the project.

Jinshan Gold Mines reported in early March 2010 a new NI 43-101 compliant reserve and resource estimate for its CSH 217 open-pit, heap leach gold mine in Inner Mongolia, China, has increased total proven and probable reserves to 3.43 million oz of gold