A 12-YEAR "overnight success" that is on budget and schedule will pump several million dollars into Dubbo and district annually from the end of next month.
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The first of 120 operational staff to be employed by Alkane Resources for its Tomingley Gold Project are expected to be stripping clay from the Wyoming Three open pit mine site on the western side of the Newell Highway come the end of September.
By the end of October or the start of November mining should be under way despite continuing construction of huge and expensive infrastructure up until Christmas.
A stock of ore will expedite production from January after commissioning of plant.
Alkane Resources has set aside $116 million of its own money to create a mining operation that has been 12 years in the making.
Managing director Ian Chalmers joked about an "overnight success" as a bus took him and the company's three other directors on a tour of the site where exploration began in 2001.
The board members flew into Dubbo yesterday morning from Victoria, Queensland and Western Australia to be informed by project manager Henry Kaye that the construction phase was 63 per cent complete.
Media joined the tour that revealed many faces familiar to the Dubbo community, among the construction contractors.
The construction workforce will peak at 100 workers in the lead-up to Christmas.
After the state government granted a mining lease in February, about 250 people turned out to the Tomingley hall to hear about job opportunities in the production phase.
Yesterday Mr Chalmers advised that they had been advertised and the company's intention was to employ as many "locals" as possible. When the project reaches production the company expects that Dubbo and district will benefit to the tune of "several millions of dollars a year" through wages, salaries and contractor payments.
The Tomingley Gold Project will involve open-pit and underground mining across 10 to 12 years.
It aims to produce between 50,000 and 60,000 ounces of gold per year, based on an annual ore throughput of about one million tonnes.
The project site straddles the highway, requiring the future construction of a $5 million underpass.
Alkane Resources intended to start the mining at the Caloma open-pit mine on the eastern side of the highway but has switched to Wyoming Three on the western side where most of the project's infrastructure is being built.
It includes a $50 million processing plant, including a $5 million ball mill, and two residue storage facilities covering 42 hectares.
Alkane's board, chaired by mining engineer John Dunlop, will meet in Dubbo today.
