Westfill, an underground mining contractor, has secured a two-year contract for development and production activities at Vault Minerals' Rothsay mine in Western Australia.

The Rothsay mine is located in the Warriedar Greenstone gold belt of the Yalgoo Goldfield, approximately 300km north-east of Perth.

Westfill's responsibilities will include extracting mineralised ore from narrow sub-vertical structures. The company began its on-site operations in mid-September.

The Rothsay mine is part of the Deflector operations, which recently reported a record quarterly mill throughput in September, producing more than 30,000oz of gold and 188 tonnes (t) of copper.

Despite a lower quarter-over-quarter production of 166,637t at 4.8 grams per tonne (g/t) due to the contractor transition, gold sales reached 32,127oz and 160t of copper, with an all-in sustaining cost of A$1,820 ($1,256) per ounce.

The current market price for gold stands at around A$4,238/oz.

Westfill managing director Ashley Morcombe said: “We are very excited to take on our first full principal mining services contract with Red5 (now Vault Minerals after the merger with Silverlake Resources), who are a valued client of Westfill’s.

“Our Darlot development team’s hard work and consistently high performance are what put Westfill up as a key contender for the Rothsay contract.

“I would like to thank our entire team for pulling the contract together and mobilising in a short time frame. We look forward to continuing our high performance and success at another of Vault Minerals’ sites.”

The Rothsay underground mine serves as a high-grade satellite ore source, with ore transported approximately 197km to the Deflector processing facility by road.

Westfill earlier reported that it has deployed a high-speed development unit at Vault Minerals' Darlot operations and achieved 80,000 drill metres in the initial quarter of operation, outperforming the target by 17,000m.