Red 5 Limited reported that, following months of detailed planning and preparation, its mining contractor, Macmahon Contractors Pty Ltd. has commenced open pit mining at the 100%-owned 2.4Moz, 16-year life-of-mine King of the Hills (KOTH) Gold Project in Western Australia. With the KOTH Project now well past 83% completion (at the end of December 2021), Red 5 is firmly on track to deliver first gold production through the new KOTH processing plant in the June Quarter. The commencement of open pit mining is in-line with the project execution schedule, with underground mining expected to commence on schedule in early April 2022.

Macmahon is progressively mobilising to KOTH, establishing infrastructure, and ramping up its site workforce according to plan. The initial open pit mining fleet consists of one 360-tonne Hitachi excavator and four 789 Caterpillar trucks supporting ancillary equipment. The full fleet for open pit mining will eventually comprise three Hitachi excavators, sixteen 789 Caterpillar trucks and additional ancillary equipment.

Red 5's mining team has been optimising the KOTH mine plans over the past 12 months, with the final mining fleet configured to enable scalability and future production growth.