The McPhillamys gold deposit lies along one of a series of north-south trending splays/horsetail structures that occur at the inflection of the Godolphin-Copperhania Fault Zone where the orientation changes from NNW-SSE to SSW-NNE. The splays are defined by strong shearing and faulting and continue to the south for over 6km. The deposit is hosted by dacite- rich volcaniclastic rocks of the Silurian-aged Anson formation which vary in composition from crystal tuffs to agglomeratic, matrix-supported accretions.

Gold mineralisation is associated with strongly sheared volcaniclastics with strong quartz- carbonate-sericite-pyritepyrrhotite alteration. The gold mineralisation trends roughly north-south over a strike distance of 900m and dips steeply east at 70º to 80º to the east.

A conventional load and haul mining method has been selected for the development of the MGP. Open pit mining activities are expected to be conducted by an experienced third-party earthmoving contractor.

All mining is proposed to take place 24 hours per day, 7 days per week using conventional excavators and haul trucks as used in open pit gold mining operations world-wide. The mineralised ore profile will be mined in benches of between 2.5 and 5.0 metres for grade and selectivity considerations. The ore boundaries will be determined by grade control drilling.

Allowance has been made in the mining schedule to blast 70% of the oxide domain (excluding clay zone defined as free dig) and 100% of the transitional and fresh domains prior to load and haul of the material to the waste dumps, low grade stockpile or ROM.

The single open pit will be mined in two stages to assist in reducing total earthmoving production requirements and in particular the first two years of operation. Additional detailed scheduling will be required to further optimise material movement and manage the estimated 20 to 25% of Potentially Acid Forming (PAF) waste material contained within the pit.

Pit slope design parameters have been developed to a level of confidence suitable for DFS level design. Based on the structural and geotechnical interpretations, a range of likely controlling slope failure mechanisms have been proposed, from bench-scale up to inter-ramp and overall slope.

The overall open pit slope averages approximately 43.5o to 46.6 o depending on geotechnical domain. Oxide, transition and fresh rock types vary in overall pit slope angles according to geotechnical advice and how many haul road passes occur in any given zone.

The process plant for the MGP will utilise conventional and well proven mineral processes incorporating equipment that ensures effective expenditure of capital while aiming toward minimising the operating costs for the project. The processing facility will be designed for a nominal 841tph milling rate and capacity of 7Mtpa for an operating life in excess of 10 years.

The process plant process flow diagram (PFD) has been developed from the process design criteria (PDC) prepared by Regis and Mintrex. The plant design proposed is simple but robust and broadly comprises the following:
- Three stage crushing;
- Grinding and classification;
- Gravity recovery and ultrafine grinding;
- Leaching and adsorption;
- Tailings thickening;
- Cyanide detoxification;
- Elution and electro-winning;
- Smelting.

ROM ore will be fed to the crushing plant at a design rate of 1,250tph and reduced to a P80 of 15mm and then stored on the crushed ore stockpile (COS). The crushing circuit will be used on an as required basis with an expected daily usage of 16.8 hours per day. The grinding circuit will reduce the crushed material to a P80 of 150 microns. It will operate 7 days per week, with a plant utilisation of 95% to achieve the annual design capacity of 7,000,000 tonnes.

A gravity separation circuit is included in the design to recover approximately 4% of the feed material consisting of coarser gold particles and heavier sulphides that contain occluded gold particles. A UFG circuit will then reduce the gravity concentrate from a P80 of 150 microns to a P80 of 10 microns. The gold in the gravity tail will then be leached using oxygen and cyanide and adsorbed onto activated carbon using conventional CIL technology and the UFG gravity concentrate will be leached using a generic intensive cyanide reactor.

Tailings will be thickened prior to being processed through a cyanide detoxification circuit and then pumped to the Tailings Storage Facilitys. Water will be reclaimed via a decant arrangement and returned to the process facility.

Gold recovery from the activated carbon will be via an AARL stripping and electrowinning circuit operating 7 cycles per week. Gold doré bars will then be smelted and stored in the secure goldroom with electronic security surveillance systems.