The main deposit type in the Aurizona project area is greenstone-hosted orogenic gold, a subtype of the larger orogenic class of gold deposits.

The primary mineralization style on the Property consists of orogenic-style gold deposits, typically associated with the quartz diorite and feldspar quartz diorite units in brittle-ductile structures like the ASZ. Significant gold occurrences in the project area include the Piaba, Boa Esperança, Tatajuba and Genipapo deposits, as well as the Mestre Chico and Micote targets.

Piaba is a structurally-controlled, tabular, orogenic gold deposit with a strike length of ~3.3 km, width of 10 – 50 m, and down-dip extent of at least 700 m, beyond which the deposit is sparsely explored. The deposit is hosted in the brittle-ductile ASZ that is ENE-WSW striking and steeply north dipping to the NNW.

Within the Piaba deposit, the ASZ system is divided into ten shear zones and/or brittle faults, partially segmenting the deposit with limited offsets. The maximum offset observed is 100 m, whereas most offsets are in the order of 10 m. The Pirocaua fault zone at the east-northeast end of the deposit is a significant structure. This brittle fault zone is up to 350 m wide and locally disrupts the Piaba gold zone with a maximum offset of 75 m. At the western end of Piaba on section 1900W there is a northwest striking fault, which truncates the gold zone at depth. Near surface mineralization continues west of the fault in P ........

The Aurizona Mine is currently an operating open pit mine with ore processing by gravity concentration and cyanide leach (CIL) circuit which restarted operations in 2018 after three years on care and maintenance. This PFS considers the addition of an underground mine beneath the existing Piaba pit that will assist in extending the mine life to 2032. The additional open pit areas of Tatajuba and Genipapo have been incorporated in the mine plan.

Boa Esperança
Criteria used for the Piaba and Piaba East pits in laterite and saprolite are considered to be relevant and are applied in the Boa Esperança pit design. The Boa Esperança pit is only 52 m deep at its maximum depth which is less than the depth of Piaba and Piaba East, both which have shown stability with the design parameters.

Tatajuba, Genipapo North and South
Geotechnical guidance for the outlying areas of Tatajuba, Genipapo North and South have relied upon the earlier work for Piaba as guidance for the PFS. The majority of Tatajuba is in lateritic and saprolitic material (61%) which is expected to behave in a manner similar to the Piaba pits. The thickness of the laterite and saprolite material totals a maximum of 46 m. The transition and fresh rock account only for 22% and 17% respectively and are predominantly at the east and west extents of the pit with a maximum combined thickness of 65 m. The geotechnical design parameters used at Tatajuba are the same as at Piaba.

Undergro ........

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The Aurizona process plant currently treats the ore via a conventional cyanidation process. Runof mine (ROM) ore is processed using a conventional primary crusher and SAG-Ball mill comminution circuit followed by gravity circuit, CIL process and associated gold recovery and carbon handling circuits to produce gold doré. The process plant was upgraded during the recent construction project in 2018-2019 and recommenced operations in May 2019. The leach/CIP circuit was subsequently converted to a CIL circuit in 2020.

The process plant was upgraded to treat 8,000 t/d ore (2.9 Mt/a) based on a blend of laterite/ saprolite, transition and fresh rock. The process plant has been generally treating ore feed grades nominally ranging from 1 g/t to 2 g/t, mainly saprolite and transition ore blends, and achieving approximately 90.5% average recovery. The process plant is not expected to require any major modifications with the mine expansion plans, including the Piaba underground, howev ........