Homestake Ridge lies within the highly prolific Iskut-Stewart-Kitsault Belt that is host to several precious and base metal mineral deposits. Homestake Ridge has over 80 mineral occurrences on the Homestake Ridge related in the emplacement of intrusive stocks and felsic domes into the volcanic sedimentary host rocks.

Diverse mineralization styles on the Homestake Ridge include stratabound sulphide zones, stratabound silica-rich zones, sulphide veins, and disseminated or stockwork sulphides.

Mineralization displays characteristics of both epithermal gold and VMS deposition. Stratabound and vein (or replacement) mineralization is present that contains values in Ag, As, Au, Cu, Hg, Pb, Sb and Zn. The property geology is considered to be favourable for the discovery of “Subaqueous Hot Spring Au-Ag” or “Low Sulphidation Epithermal Au-Ag” type deposits.

The main zones of the Homestake Ridge deposit are the Homestake Main, Homestake Silver, and Silver Reef. The Homestake Main is the more copper-rich of the zones, with both gold-rich and silver-rich variants and an apparent trend of increasing copper grade with depth. The Homestake Silver zone is primarily silver with elevated lead values, and South Reef is essentially high-grade gold, with minor copper and lead.

The Homestake deposits are commonly vertically zoned from a base metal poor Au-Ag-rich top to an Ag-rich base metal zone over a vertical range of 250 m to 350 m. The silver-gale ........

The principal mining method utilized in the Deswik Stope Optimizer (DSO) runs was longhole stoping (LHOS) based on a 20 m sublevel interval. Each sublevel consists of an ore drive off a spiral ramp connecting to the level access. A minimum mining width of 2.5 m was selected to allow for mechanized mining.

The main deliverable from the Deswik stope optimizer was a life of mine production schedule based on a combined 900 tpd mill feed rate. This yields a mine life of just under 13 years.

The total mill feed includes roughly 0.34 M Indicated tonnes, 2.52 M Inferred tonnes, 0.56 M dilution tonnes. Just under 50 percent of the mineralized tonnes come from the Homestake Main deposit. The Silver deposit contributes another 41 percent, and the South Reef contributes the final 11 percent.

The resulting mine production schedule consists of 2.87 M stope tonnes and 0.55 M mineralized development tonnes for a total of 3.42 Mt grading 5.41 gpt Au, 84.31 gpt Ag, 0.13 percent Cu and 0.12 percent Pb.

The mine development will be accomplished by mechanized trackless equipment. The PEA mine plan includes a combined 10 km of ramps in the three deposits, 12 km of level access, and another 22 km of ore drives primarily in mineralized material.

The primary mining method of longhole retreat stoping will employ the use of uncemented rockfill to backfill the mine voids as the stope advances. Since the mine will advance by overhand methods, the ........

- subscription is required.