Technical Report for the Fort Knox Mine - Kinross Gold

Fort Knox Mine Technical ReportPit optimization slope angles are based on inter-ramp angles from studies by two firmsGolder Associates and Call & Nicholas, Inc. Due to the “flat bottom” and centralgeometry of the Fort Knox orebody allowing for unique ramp access opportunities,overall slopes in the pit optimization were not flattened beyond inter-ramp angles. Acomplex slope model was developed utilizing the location of the granite-schist contact.Slopes used in the schist were 37 0 on the south wall, 42º in the southwest corner, 40º onthe north and northwest walls, and 45º on the east wall. Slopes in the underlying granitewere set at 45º. The 37º and 45º angles on the south wall schist and granite,respectively, are not an exact match to the design strategy suggested by Call &Nicholas; however, this would not influence the pit optimization, since the south wall wasconstrained by practical mining pushback limitations.Previous years’ optimizations were limited by NOAA’s land holdings on the west side ofthe pit. Negotiations with NOAA to obtain a westward extension of FGMI’s land holdingswere completed in 2007 allowing the inclusion of additional material as mineral reserveand mineral resource.Using the MineSight software package, a Lerchs-Grossmann pit optimization was run at$550 gold price using no discount rate. A check was performed by Kinross TechnicalServices using Whittle software and methodology, and the pit shell with the optimal NPVwas found to vary in total tonnage from the $550 MineSight pit by less than 1.7%. Afinal pit was then designed using the optimized pit outline as a guide, and closely followsthe $525 per ounce pit optimization on the north and east sides. A very large varianceexists between the optimization and the pit design, due to size limitations of practicalpushbacks on the southeast and east sides, and land position restrictions on the westside.17.4 Production ReconciliationThe current mineral model for Fort Knox was reconciled to actual mining to provide anindication as to how well the current resource and reserve model predicts the tonnageand grade of the mineralization. Table 17-5 displays the reconciliation of the A-ore model64