The Bellevue Project is located within the Agnew-Wiluna portion of the Norseman-Wiluna Greenstone belt, approximately 40 km NNW of Leinster. The project area comprises felsic to intermediate volcanic sequences, meta-sediments, ultramafic komatiite flows, Jones Creek Conglomerates and tholeiitic meta basalts (Mt Goode Basalt) which hosts the known gold deposits.
• The major gold deposits in the area lie on or adjacent to north-northwest trending fault zones.
• The Bellevue gold deposit is hosted by the partly tholeiitic meta-basalts of the Mount Goode Basalts in an area of faulting, shearing and dilation to form a shear hosted lode style quartz/basalt breccia.

Gold mineralisation in the area is structurally controlled and is generally associated with north-northwest striking and west dipping shear zones (dipping from 900 to 450), of 1 to 20 metre thickness. The exceptions are the Viago Lode, which is a low angle shear zone between 300 and 500 metres below surface which gently plunges to the south, and the Westralia and Vanguard lodes, which dip 450 to the north-east.

The majority of the Ore Reserves (>98% of Ore Reserve metal) are planned to be mined using conventional underground methods. The remainder of the Ore Reserves are planned to be extracted using conventional open pit mining methods on the near-surface portions of the Tribune and Vanguard lodes. A third open pit system, Hamilton/Henderson/Bellevue, is included in the LOM project plan.

The open pits are planned to be mined using a conventional diesel fleet of 120 t excavators and 90 t trucks. A smallest mining unit (SMU) modification process was carried out on the relevant Mineral Resources to ensure realistic modifying factors were applied to the forecast ore production. A minimum SMU of 3 m (2 m minimum mining width with 0.5 m dilution on each HW and FW contact) was applied, having regard for the fleet type and orebody spatial characteristics.

The Feasibility Study contemplates mainly underground mining and four small open pits. Detailed underground mine designs were then carried out on the deposit incorporating the optimisation results, and these were used as the basis of the Ore Reserve estimate. Modifying factors were applied to the design and a mine plan was subsequently scheduled. All Ore Reserve material is planned to be mined using underground methods. The underground mining methods used to estimate the Ore Reserve were applied based on the spatial characteristics of the lodes.

For the sub-vertical lodes (Deacon, Tribune, Tribune North, Marceline & Armand) where ore footwall contact dips > 45°, a bottom-up modified Avoca longhole stoping method with cemented rockfill for void support was applied. Where top access is impossible (e.g. crown stopes), a longhole open stoping method retaining in-situ pillars for support will be used. Vertical sub-level intervals of 15 m were applied to provide good drill and blast control. For the sub-horizontal lodes (Viago and Vlad), a jumbo cut-and-fill with short up-dip longhole stoping mining method was applied. This method involves the following steps:
1. Horizontal jumbo development of a primary drive following the ore contact.
2. Stripping of ore within the footprint of a planned secondary drive adjacent to the primary drive.
3. Filling of the primary ore drive.
4. Development of the secondary ore drive immediately adjacent to the filled primary drive through the mined-out void of stripped ore; and
5. Mining of 5-8 m up-dip height longhole stopes.

The Bellevue Gold Project underground essentially consists of five separate high-grade working areas accessed ultimately via two portals. Each of the major areas (Armand, Marceline/Deacon North, Tribune, Deacon and Viago) is serviced by independent internal accesses and ventilation circuits and has been scheduled with its own equipment resources.

Diesel powered trucks and loaders will be used for materials handling. Diesel-electric jumbo drill rigs will be used for development and ground support installation, and diesel-electric longhole rigs used for production drilling. Ore will be hauled directly to the processing plant run-of-mine (ROM) pad by the underground trucking fleet. Mullock will be disposed of on a surface waste dump to be constructed close to the portal. The Bellevue lodes will be accessed through an existing portal in the Paris pit via the historical Bellevue decline which is currently being dewatered, re-entered and rehabilitated. A new portal will be cut from the Tribune pit and used to connect other underground development. Ventilation and secondary egress will be provided through a system of raisebored raises planned to be developed to surface.

A maximum unsupported stope span of 40m was designed based on the geotechnical analysis. All stopes had a dilution skin of 0.15m (true width) applied on each hanging wall and footwall contact (0.3m total true width) at contained Mineral Resource grade, based on geotechnical advice. Where stope ore is bogged against fill, an additional 3% fill dilution was added at waste grade. No additional dilution outside of design was applied to development.

Sub-vertical stopes and sub-horizontal stripping had a mining recovery of 95% applied. In-situ rib pillars were also modelled in sub-vertical areas unable to be filled to honour geotechnical stope stability recommendations. Sub-horizontal primary stopes had a mining recovery factor of 85% applied to model difficulties associated with drilling of ore from the footwall for bogging. A 100% mining recovery factor has been applied to development. Stopes were designed with a minimum mining width of 1.5m (true width), resulting in final minimum void width of 1.8m including dilution. Sub-horizontal stripping was designed with a minimum mining width of 1.2m (true width), resulting in a final minimum void width of 1.5m including dilution.

The processing facility has been designed and costed by GR Engineering Services Pty Ltd (GRES). Nameplate capacity will be 1,000,000 tonnes per annum, operating seven days per week at a nominal treatment rate of 125 dry t/h on fresh ore with a grinding circuit utilisation rate of 91.3%. The unit processes were based on proven technology for gold recovery following a processing route of:
• Three stage crushing using a primary jaw crusher with secondary and tertiary cone crushers to yield a final product of 80% passing 8.3mm.
• Grinding in a single ball mill circuit closed with hydro-cyclones to achieve a product size of 80% passing 75µm.
• Treatment of the entire mill discharge slurry stream by centrifugal gravity concentration, followed by batch intensive leaching of the gravity concentrate, and electrowinning of the resulting pregnant solution.
• Thickening of the leach feed stream to 50% solids prior to leaching.
• Leaching and adsorption in a hybrid carbon-i ........