The project is located at the intersection of the Tenkodogo belt and the Markoye Fault Zone within Lower Proterozoic rocks of the Birimian Orogeny. Amphibole-rich mafic volcanic rocks are predominant in the lower (southern) portion of the deposit area, overlain by a sequence of clastic sediments. Several quartz-feldspar porphyritic sills intrude through the sequence at the northern end, the most significant of which is 90m thick, interpreted to be an important rheological barrier to gold mineralisation. At least two generations of postmineralisation mafic intrusions occur: steeply dipping, medium to coarse grained diorite dykes up to 80m wide, and fine grained dolerite dykes 2-3m wide, with well defined, sharp contacts. Structural patterns are the product of protracted northwest-southeast directed shortening, producing a major F2 antiform several hundred meters wide, that is thought to be a primary control on localisation of gold mineralisation, evidenced by steep northeasterly plunging mineralisation zones.

Gold mineralisation at Kiaka occurs within the subvertical southwest dipping Kiaka Shear Zone (KSZ), comprising an anastomosing network of ductile to brittle-ductile shears, localised along the axial surface of the Kiaka antiform. The KSZ ranges from 100-260m, with a strike length of approximately 2.3km. Gold mineralisation exhibits both disseminated and vein-related characteristics, and is spatially associated with fine grained disseminated pyrrhotite, lesser pyrite and race chalcopyrite and arsenopyrite. Higher gold grades are frequently associated with the presence of quartz, both as veins, and wall rock silicification.

Known mineralisation at Kiaka Main extends along strike for approximately 2km and consists of multiple broad lenses up to and in places exceeding 200m wide. Mineralisation has been drilled up to 600m in depth. At Kiaka South, mineralisation exists up to 500m strike and 200m deep and is less well developed in terms of overall continuity than the main zone. Individual lenses are up to 200m in strike and up to 35m wide. Mineralisation at both deposits remains open at depth.

The Kiaka Gold Project is comprised of the Kiaka Main and Kiaka South deposits, with over 98% of the Ore Reserve contained in the Kiaka Main deposit.

The main ore zone is characterised by a mineralised corridor 100m to 260m wide and has a drill defined strike length of approximately 1.5km. Within this are higher grade lenses ranging between 5m and 50m wide, with good continuity for 100m to 800m along strike and 50m to >400m downdip. These lenses are hosted within a lower grade halo mineralisation within the mineralised structural corridor. The mineralised corridor is flanked by a number of sub-parallel mineralised structures some 2m to 20m wide.

The main portion of the ore body is amenable to exploitation by open pit mining methods. As such the mining study has been based on conventional open pit mining methods with run of mine ore being directly fed to the crushing circuit. This study has been based on having a contractor to execute the mining operations utilising a combination of Caterpillar 6015 (140t class) and 6020 (230t class) hydraulic excavators matched to Caterpillar 777 (95t class) dump trucks. Drill and blast will be required from near surface. Drill and blast parameters have been selected based on the relatively hard rock mass qualities and the required selectivity for the mining of the ore. Given the broad mineralised zone a portion of the blasting will be able to be undertaken on 10m benches with more selective zones blasted on 5m benches. As such a combination of top hammer (Sandvik Panterra DP1500) and downhole hammer (Sandvik Leopard DI650) capable blast hole rigs will be employed.

The Kiaka Main pit is 2km long, 900m wide and 460m deep. The pit has a minor sub-pit at the southern end which will be mined independently. The Kiaka Main pit will be mined in four pit stages to defer waste mining and provide slightly higher grade ore in the first years of operation.

The smaller Kiaka South pit is 650m long, 350m wide and 130m deep.

The primary aim of the mine schedule is to supply the best value ore to the mill as early as possible, to maximise the value to the Project. In doing so, the schedule is developed to satisfy physical and practical constraints, including: a sustainable production profile and an achievable vertical advance rate. The mine schedule is based on a processing rate of 8.4Mt/yr.

To maximise the value from the mining schedule, the main pit will be mined in four stages with the main advantage of deferring waste mining until later in the mine life. Mining will start in the Kiaka Main Stage 1 pit which has a low strip ratio (0.6:1 waste tonnes : ore tonnes) and slightly higher grade than the life of mine average. With average grades of 1.4g/t Au compared to the life of mine average of 0.9, Kiaka Main C3 and Kiaka South will be prioritised in the early mining schedule.

To achieve the targeted processing rate a total material movement averaging 21 Mt/yr is required for the first seven years of the production schedule. With the pit staging deferring waste movement, this increases to an average of 35 Mt/y for the next six years of production before reducing to an average of 15 Mt/yr for the remainder of the mine life. The production profile is suited to an initial fleet of 2 x 230t excavators and 1 x 140t excavator matched to 95t class trucks. The fleet will increase to 3 x 230t excavators with 2 x 140t excavators for the higher production requirement. Further work to investigate bulk mining scenarios and optimising fleet selection will be conducted. Further refinement of the drill and blast parameters will also be undertaken in conjunction with the fleet optimisation.

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The Kiaka process plant will have a nameplate throughput of 7.0Mtpa, with an availability of 8,000 hours per annum and a nominal capacity of 875 tonnes per hour (tph). A 20% engineering contingency was allowed by Lycopodium Minerals in the design, in particular from a hydraulic capacity through thickening, CIL and tailings pumping. Throughput modelling conducted by OMC show the selected comminution circuit is capable of a throughput of 8.4Mtpa (1,050 tph) on the design blend, which is equivalent to the hydraulic design margin allowed by Lycopodium.

WAF has adopted an approach of oversizing the comminution circuit to align with the hydraulic design margin of the downstream processing plant, an identical approach to that employed at Sanbrado which was also designed by Lycopodium Minerals. On this basis the Kiaka processing plant will be ramped up post commissioning and handover from Lycopodium Minerals from the 7 Mtpa nameplate design to the design hydraulic limit of 8.4 Mtpa ........