Based on the January 2022 feasibility study (FS), conventional open pit mining methods will be used to extract a portion of the Deposit. This method was selected considering the deposit’s size, shape, orientation, and proximity to the surface. Drilling, blasting, loading, and hauling will be used to mine the open pit material within the designed pit to meet the mine production schedule.
Open pit mining will include conventional drilling and blasting with a combination of a backhoe type excavator, hydraulic excavator, and front-end loader type excavator loading broken rock into haul trucks, which will haul the material from the bench to the crusher, run of mine (ROM) stockpile or waste stockpiling areas depending on the material type. Ancillary equipment includes dozers, graders, and various maintenance, support, service and utility vehicles. This Technical Report considers a mining contractor operator scenario.
The FS is based on a conventional truck-shovel open pit mining operation within two pits. The open pit production period is approximately 10.9 years with 1 year of pre-production (prior to process plant start-up). It is envisaged that the PMF will be loaded directly into the processing plant crusher hopper but there will be a need for a ROM stockpile to allow for stoppages, for stockpiling in the pre-production period, and possibly some blending. The operation scenario for the FS involves:
Open pit mining at an average mining rate of 12.8 Mt per year.
Gold process facility with a 1.46 Mtpa (4,000 t/d) capacity.
Approximate 6 month ramp up period in Year 1 (YR1) for process facility.
1 year pre-production mining period to coincide with the tailings management facility (TMF) Initial Stage development.
