The Wharf Operation deposits are considered Tertiary epithermal replacement mineralization, both intrusive-hosted and sediment-hosted (Coeur internal report, 2014). Depth of mineralization at the Wharf Operation (~1.5 km; Paterson and Giebink, 1989) is considered deeper than normal for epithermal deposits, but low temperature of mineralization are consistent with epithermal-type deposits (Paterson, 1990), although these temperatures may represent late stage of fluorite mineralization.

The main trends of mineralization at Wharf parallel the strike of a major joint sets that Shapiro and Gries (1970) measured in upper and lower Deadwood Fm. outcrops. At Golden Reward, the mineralized trends strike north-south. Mineralized trends at Golden Reward may reflect more of an influence from basement structure, as the later faults in the Golden Reward graben area may have been reactivated along faults or moved along existing foliation planes, and mineralization occurred along the same trend as the faulting.

Gold or gold-bearing minerals may be disseminated in porphyry, or may be confined to fractures (Paterson and Giebink, 1989; Paterson, 1990). Highly fractured porphyry is known to be the most mineralized, and preliminary work shows a correlation of fractured porphyry with gold, in contrast to unfractured and unmineralized rocks within mineralized zones. This, however, may be due again to gold-bearing sulfides occurring as the primary economic mineral. Porphyry near fractures is usually the most oxidized, grading outwards into gray, blocky porphyry with very small (< 0.25 mm) grains of disseminated sulfides. Atomic absorption (AA) assaying is limited in determining gold encapsulated in sulfides, but assays of fractured samples that are oxidized will readily measure gold formerly in sulfides. Additional fire assays may help to better understand this association.

Visible native gold observed at Wharf has been only seen twice during current mining activities; one occurrence was found within a fluorite vein. Because fluorite is considered a late-stage mineral (e.g., Paterson et al., 1989), the fluorite-gold occurrence may indicate a later, minor mineralizing event, distinct from earlier, goldbearing sulfide mineralization. Thin sections of very high-grade (1.173 and 0.615 oz/ton Au) samples from the Annie Creek mine analyzed by Schurer and Fuchs (1991) show native gold associated with hematite, goethite, jarosite which forms from oxidation of iron sulfides, and arseniosiderite which forms from oxidation of
arsenopyrite; quartz was also associated with gold. A thin section from the lowestgrade sample in this study (0.195 oz/ton Au) showed no native gold, but abundant sulfides, which was assumed to indicate lattice or submicron gold. The discussion suggests that oxidation of arsenic-bearing sulfides may have remobilized gold in an arsenic complex and deposited it as native gold in higher-grade samples (Schurer and Fuchs, 1991).

The Wharf Operation is currently a conventional truck and loader heap leach gold mine. The Wharf Operation consists of five heap leach pads, which are all load/offload pads. The entire planned mining disturbance falls within the current permitted area.

Wharf leases nearly all of the earth moving equipment used at the mine. The current earth moving equipment under lease through local equipment dealers includes: (14) 777 trucks, (1) D-10 and (2) D-9 dozers, (4) 993 front end loaders, (2) 16M motor graders, and (2) DM 45 hammer drills. Relationships with local dealers span over 15 years, and the earthmoving equipment is under contract through 2017.

Ore is trucked to the crusher located at the east end of the plant/pad area to be crushed to a nominal size of 80 percent minus ¾-inch passing. The crushing plant can process between 4.2 and 4.6M tons of ore per year, depending on ore hardness. Lime is added to the crushed ore. Once crushed, the ore is trucked to leach pads to be stacked in 20-foot-high lifts.

Stacked ore is then leached with dilute sodium cyanide solution. Gold and silver in the pregnant (metal-bearing) leach solution (PLS) are recovered by adsorption on activated carbon and the barren (non-metal bearing) leach solution is recycled to the heap leach pad. Spent ore is rinsed, neutralized and denitrified and then removed from the leach pad to be placed on a designated spent ore storage area.

Gold and silver is recovered from loaded carbon utilizing a modified pressure Zadra method. The rich electrolyte (RE) from the elution process is then processed by electrowinning, depositing the metals into an electrolytic sludge with 90-98% gold and silver. Precious metals in the electrolytic sludge are further purified by smelting at a commercial refinery.