Gold mineralization at Sukari is hosted exclusively by porphyry. The lack of significant gold grades in chemically reactive serpentinitic wall rocks can be explained in one of two ways:

• The porphyry represented a favourable host either because of its composition, relative to mineralising fluids, or its mechanical properties or both.

• The Sukari Porphyry was relocated, relative to wall rock sequences, by faulting after gold mineralization.

While significant post-mineralization faulting has possibly occurred, the second scenario is unlikely. Porphyry dykes in the hangingwall of the main porphyry body show gold mineralization of essentially the same character as that in the main porphyry and wall rocks immediately adjacent to those dykes are also barren. Those dykes range in thickness from a few centimetres to several metres. It is not reasonable to postulate that they, along with the main porphyry body, were all relocated by faulting after mineralization.

Certainly it is evident that the Sukari Porphyry has acted as a rigid body surrounded by weaker rocks. Footwall and hangingwall rocks have taken up strain by development of strong schistosity, almost certainly accompanied by large decreases in volume. The porphyry has taken up strain by development of predominantly brittle fault structures.

The porphyry host for the mineralization has a strike length of approximately 2,300 m, and ranges in thickness from 100 m to approximately 600 m (Cavaney 2005). Gold mineralization within this is not continuous and its deposition has been influenced by major long-lived structures, the most important of which are tabular sheets of crackle breccia.

All ore and waste is being mined using open-pit gold mining methods. The mine currently uses four (4) CAT 6040 face-shovels (or equivalent), four (4) O&K RH120 backhoe excavators and forty-eight (48) CAT785C haul trucks to carry out the bulk of the ore and waste.

Ore is hauled to the ROM pad adjacent to the primary crusher. The majority of ore is direct tipped into the crusher, with provision for ore to be stockpiled for reclaim by a front-end-loader operated as part of the crushing and processing operation. Ore is not expected to always be visually distinct from waste, and hence ore and waste segregation relies on RC drilling, sampling, and assays for definition of ore blocks.

Waste is used for construction or is hauled to the waste dumps on the east and south sides of the pit. Waste is used to construct ramps to provide access on the hillside and to provide fill for the TSF. The haul roads from the pit to the ROM pad and waste dumps were constructed with waste rock sourced from the pit.

The open-pit mining assumptions used to develop the indicative schedule are.
- The maximum vertical advance is 90 metres per annum (except for very small tonnage benches on Sukari Hill, which AMC considers can be mined faster).
- Open-pit production rate commences at 66 Mtpa (current mining rate) and then progressively increases, to nominal rates of 80 Mtpa and 100 Mtpa, as required to maintain processing plant throughput capacity without contribution from underground and to minimize the use of low grade (<0.6 g/t) sulphide ore.
- Current supply of blasting product is sufficient to meet the current production rates, and additional supplies of blasting product can be secured to meet increased production rates.
- Smaller-scale project fleet to undertake pioneering pre-strip work.

The process route encompasses:
• Crushing
• Stockpiling crushed ore
• Grinding
• Flotation of a bulk sulphide concentrate
• Thickening of the concentrate and the flotation tailings
• Fine milling of the concentrate
• Leaching the precious metals from the concentrate and/or flotation tailings in a dilute cyanide solution
• Adsorbing the precious metals onto activated carbon
• Eluting (or desorbing) the precious metals from the carbon
• Recovering the precious metals as gold doré
• Combining the flotation tailings and leached concentrate and pumping to the TSF.

Flotation
Two flotation circuits are installed and designed to be operated in parallel. The flotation circuits are designed to recover a bulk sulphide concentrate for further comminution and subsequent leaching. The circuits are designed to operate 24 hours a day, seven days a week with a utilization of 91.3%.

The Stage 1/2 flotation circuit comprise ........