The BAM Gold Deposit is located in the south- central area of the Junior Lake property and is interpreted as an Archean-aged mesothermal gold deposit. The deposit consists of gold mineralization that is hosted by sheared and altered rocks of the Grassy Pond Sill and the BAM Sequence. The deposit has been traced by detailed drilling at approximately 50 m centres along a strike length of approximately 2,000 m. Reconnaissance-scale step-out drilling has also intersected gold mineralization in the same host rocks along a strike length of approximately 1,900 m. Based upon the information collected from the detailed scale diamond drill holes, the host rock units strike in an east-southeast direction (average of azimuth 105°) and dip steeply to moderately to the south at 70° to 75°. The gold mineralization is interpreted to reside within a series of tabular shaped zones that are oriented in a roughly en-echelon configuration and are generally parallel to the overall strike of the host rock units. Within the main BAM Sequence four to six mineralized zones are currently recognized, with the estimated true widths of each mineralized zones ranging from 2 m to 50 m.

The gold mineralization occurs as a fine dissemination and also is commonly observed in drill core to exist as visible gold that is hosted by very thin, foliation-parallel quartz-rich veinlets, hosted by highly fissile ultramafic sediments of the BAM Sequence, or by foliated rocks of the Grassy Pond Sill.

A preliminary petrographic study (Payne, 2016) carried out on a number of samples has identified the presence of coarse native gold that is present in association with an unidentified silvery mineral that occur within calcite replacement patches and veinlets.

Small-scale quartz veining is observed to be present within the BAM Sequence and the Grassy Pond Sill on occasion, and the veins can be either barren or be associated with gold-bearing intervals. The observed veins typically measure up to 10 cm in width and can contain an assemblage of either tourmaline (schorl), ankerite, or scheelite (?). The veins are observed to be oriented either sub-parallel or at a high angle to the general foliation of the drill core. Textural evidence suggests that two generations of quartz veins may be present. Given the early stage of the deposit’s history, the detailed paragenetic relationship of the quartz veining to the structure and gold veining is not clearly understood at present.

Given the shallow nature of the mineralization and the initial metallurgical test results, material could be extracted by means of open pit mining methods and processed using conventional milling techniques.

Three-dimensional modelling and block construction have been created with aim of preparing a suitable model for open pit mine design and pit optimization, with a minimum mining width of 2 m. Internal dilution has been considered with a maximum downhole width of 3m (2.0m true width) of sub-grade material (<0.2g/t Au). The minimum block dimensions were selected based on a mining SMU of 6.25mE x 2.5mN x 2.5mRL.

The base input parameters used in the open pit optimization and mine design work completed by Cube are based on information collated after discussions with Landore and review of economic analyses in PEA reports from similar projects in Ontario, Canada. Geotechnical pit design parameters were based on recommendations from the geotechnical assessment work carried out by WSP in 2018.

The selection of a pit shell as the guide to the final pit design was undertaken in consultation with Landore to satisfy the company’s strategic objectives. Shell 21, from Run B, which included Indicated and Inferred Resources, was selected as the target for final pit designs.

The pit shell was comprised of two distinct areas, an east pit design (BAM East Pit) and a west pit design (BAM West Pit) which were individually designed. Due to the scale of the project, pit sizes and mine life, no staging within these two pits was considered appropriate.

The Phase 1 test work indicated high extraction of gold was achieved with the BAM composite using a combination of grinding, gravity separation and agitation leaching of the gravity tails with cyanide. A conceptual flowsheet of this concept has been prepared for the BAM project.

Crushing
Run of Mine (“ROM”) ore is fed to a hopper at the crushing station. The hopper is enclosed with a stilling shed to reduce dust. A 60 cm X 60 cm static grizzly is included on top of the hopper to limit the size of feed to the primary sizer. A hydraulic rock pick is included to reduce any oversize.

Milling
Ore from the fine ore bin is fed to a wet screen above the ball mill. The wet screen is fitted with one or two decks to separate the feed into a size suitable for feed to the gravity separators and the oversize drops by gravity to the ball mill feed chute.

Gravity Separation
Undersize of the wet screen is distributed to a trio of Knelson concentrators where the coarse liberated gold is removed from the stream. Tails from the gravity concentrators report to a sump and is pumped to the ball mill feed. The gravity concentrate is fed to a wet magnetic separator where any ferromagnetic materials are removed (wear metal, magnetite, etc.). The magnetics drop to a bin for disposal. The non-magnetics are tabled to increase the concentrate grade. The table tails join the Knelson tails and are returned to the ball mill feed chute. The table concentrate reports to Concentrate Leaching.

Carbon-In-Leach (CIL)
Grind thickener underflow reports to two trains of agitated leach tanks in parallel. The pulp density is adjusted with solution from the leach tails thickener overflow. Cyanide concentration is adjusted in the feed. Oxygen is sparged into the leach tanks through the hollow shaft on the agitator.

Preliminary sizing of the CIL tanks in the conceptual flowsheet is 18.0 m dia. X 18.0 m high, agitated, rubber-lined, open-top vessels. The tanks are arranged with a 2-meter elevation difference so the pulp will flow by gravity from the first tank to the second. All agitated tanks can be bypassed for maintenance.

Tails Neutralization
Once the metal values are extracted from the feed, the slurry will be thickened and discharged to settling ponds. Prior to discharge, any residual cyanide must be neutralized, which occurs in the Air/SO2 circuit.

Tails Disposal
Neutralized tails are pumped to a lined tailings impoundment. In the impoundment the pulp consolidates, releasing process water that is pumped back to the process facility as necessary.

Concentrate Leaching
Table concentrate is charged to a Gekko In-Line leach reactor that rotates to vigorously agitate the slurry. Concentrated cyanide and oxygen are added to the reactor. The leached pulp is filtered on a countercurrent washing vacuum filter. The filtercake is deposited into the concentrate tails sump and returned to the mill. The filtrate reports to a pair of electrowinning cells in series where the precious metals are plated onto stainless steel knit mesh.

Elution
The elution circuit is a standard Pressure Zadra circuit, which is a semi-continuous batch operation.

Loaded carbon from the first stage of the CIL circuit is screened and washed of the pulp on a screen. The washed carbon drops into a holding tank in the elution circuit. When sufficient carbon is accumulated (a unit batch) it is discharged to the acid wash column.

Electrowinning/Refining
Gold is removed from the strong eluate by electro- plating it on stainless steel mesh. A DC electrical current is passed through the solution, and the gold plus any silver or copper will be reduced at the cathode to form a metallic plating. The elevated voltage generates hydrogen gas at the cathode, dislodging some of the plated material, which falls to the bottom of the cell as a metallic sludge.

Two electrowinning cells in series/parallel are included. Periodically, the cathodes are removed, and the adhering gold sludge is washed off. The sludge in the bottom of the cell is removed and all the gold sludge is filtered. The filter cake is dried and sent to the refinery.

The electrowinning cells for direct electrowinning of the concentrate leach are operated in an identical manner. The two are kept separate to prevent contamination of the low ionic strength eluate.

In the refinery, the gold sludge filtercake is mixed with fluxes and smelted in a propane-fired nose-pour crucible furnace. The mixture is heated until liquid and the impurities are dissolved in the slag. The slag is poured off and the liquid metal remaining is poured into molds where it is allowed to cool and solidify into a doré bar. The doré is cleaned, weighed and shipped offsite for refining into bullion.