Gold deposits in the West African metallogenic district, including those on the Sabodala Project and the company's adjacent exploration concessions, show many characteristics consistent with their classification as orogenic (mesothermal) gold deposits and prospects. In addition to the deposits in western Africa, these include some of the largest gold deposits globally of variable age, such as the Archean aged Hollinger and Red Lake deposits in Canada and Kalgoorlie in Australia. Orogenic gold systems are structurally controlled deposits formed during regional deformation (orogenic) events. The term orogenic refers to deposits sharing common origin in metamorphic belts that have undergone regional compressional to transpressional deformation (orogenesis), often in response to terrane accretion or continent-continent collisional events.

Orogenic gold deposits exhibit a range of styles dependent on metamorphic grade, setting, fluid type, and fluid/confining pressure. They often include spatially associated quartz shear veins, extension vein arrays, shear zone and disseminated sulphide styles. At greenschist grade, vein dominated styles such as those developed in the Sabodala district contain quartz-carbonate ± albite ± K-feldspar veins with up to 10% (pyrite ± arsenopyrite ± base metals) sulphides and associated Fe-carbonate albite, chlorite, scheelite, fuchsite and tourmaline as associated vein and hydrothermal alteration assemblages. Vein systems and shear zones are ........

The Sabodala open pit commenced production in March 2009 and has since been in operation.

At the Sabodala-Massawa complex the open pit mining method used is conventional drill and blast, truck and shovel and is conducted with Endeavour’s own fleet. The current fleet includes a total of 70 mobile mining equipment units.

The mine operates using 10-meter blast benches mined in 5-meter flitches for waste and two 2.5-meter flitches for ore. Open pit mining operations assume selective mining with respect to both weathering type, process route and grade categories. The current mining strategy assumes the selective mining of the higher-grade material to enable separate processing of the high-grade fresh refractory and non-refractory components.

All surface ore haulage and supply of explosives is outsourced to a specialist contractor. Grade control drilling is carried out by a combined owner and contractor drilling fleet.

The selected mining method is Cut and Fill for use at the underground deposits at Sabodala. Two deposits will be mined concurrently in order to meet the current mine life schedule, with each deposit scheduled at 500 tpd production, providing approximately 1,000 tpd combined peak underground ore production. Kerekounda and Golouma South will be mined first. Once they are exhausted, the Golouma West deposits will be mined.

The underground mine construction begins in year 2027, with ore production in 2028. The open ........

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