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Mining at Rosebel has been carried out at eight open pits to date: Royal Hill, Pay Caro, East Pay Caro, Koolhoven, Rosebel, Roma, J-Zone and Mayo. Mining is by conventional open pit methods, using excavators and trucks.

The mining sequence includes drilling, blasting and hauling for both ore and waste rock. Drilling is done for sampling and grade control. Material is designated as soft rock, transition or hard rock, the latter two requiring blasting.

Blasted rock that does not have useful concentrations of gold is called “waste rock”. Waste rock is piled up at the surface, near the edge of the open pit. This is known as the waste dump. The blasted rock that does contain useful concentrations of gold is called ore and is transported to the mill for processing.