The Rainy Lake property is located on the extreme western margin of the Labrador Trough adjacent to Archean basement gneisses. The Labrador Trough is a sequence of Proterozoic sedimentary rocks, which includes the Sokoman Formation within the Knob Lake Group. The Sokoman Formation is an iron formation consisting of a continuous stratigraphic unit that thickens and thins throughout the Labrador Trough.

The thickness of the Sokoman Formation varies between 120 and 240 meters and is a typical Lake Superior type iron-formation (taconite) consisting of banded sedimentary rock composed principally of layers of iron oxide, magnetite and hematite. Iron-rich bands are intercalated with cherty bands composed of variable amounts of silicate, carbonate, sulphide, ferruginous slaty iron formation, and carbonaceous shale. The Sokoman Formation is subdivided into eight stratigraphic subunits: Lean Chert ("LC"), Jasper Upper Iron Formation ("JUIF"), Green Chert ("GC"), Upper Red Chert ("URC"), Pink Grey Chert ("PGC"), Lower Red Chert ("LRC"), Lower Red Green Cherty ("LRGC"), and Lower Iron Formation ("LIF").

On the Rainy Lake property the Sokoman Formation is thickened by shallow east dipping northwestsoutheast thrust faults and is gently folded resulting in unusual thickness of iron mineralization reaching 400 meters locally. The area investigated by drilling was named the Full Moon iron deposit.

The mining method selected for the Project is a conventional open pit, drill and blast, truck and shovel operation with 10 meter high benches. Topsoil and overburden will be stripped and stockpiled for future reclamation use. The mineralization and waste rock will then be drilled, blasted and loaded into rigid frame haul trucks with hydraulic shovels. The mineralized material will be hauled to the primary crushers and the waste rock will be hauled to the waste rock pile.

The open pit design was done with an inter-ramp angle of 52° for the configuration of the final pit wall and a haul road width of 31m.

A 30 year production schedule (mine plan) was developed for the Project, which targets the production of 20 Mt of iron concentrate per year. The mine plan was used to estimate the fleet of mining equipment which resulted in 20 haul trucks (227 tonne), 3 hydraulic shovels (26.5 ma bucket), 2 wheel loaders (1,100 kW), 3 production drills as well as a fleet of support and service equipment.

The process plant is designed to produce 20.0 Mtpy of high silica content (4.5%) concentrate over a 30-year mine life. The Run of Mine ("ROM") is calculated based on a magnetite plant weight recovery of 27% and a hematite plant weight recovery of 9.2%. A design factor of 20% is applied on nominal requirements to ensure that the process equipment has enough capacity to take care of the expected feed variation.

The production of LSC (<1.5%) concentrate leads to a weight recovery loss of 3% and a production of 18.3 Mtpy of concentrate.

Two (2) stages of crushing followed by a grinding stage via HPGR are required in order for the ROM to reach the optimum grain size for processing. The magnetite beneficiation process then consists of a magnetic separation circuit, followed by a flotation circuit to produce a LSC (1.5 %).

The magnetic separation circuit is a three (3) stage process whose purpose is to separate the magnetite from the non-magnetic material. Grinding is added after the cobber magnetic separation stage in order to increase partide liberation. The regrind product is fed to a rougher LIMS whose role is to immediately reject the non-magnetic particles that have been liberated through grinding, before recirculating them into the mill. This reduces the grinding energy requirements. The regrind product is then further processed in a finishing magnetic step followed by a final classification to achieve the targeted iron and High Silica Concentrate ("HSC") (4.5%) targets. To produce a magnetic LSC (1.5%), the HSC undergoes a reverse flotation concentrating step and the rougher froth is further reground. The reground product is fed to a magnetic separator to remove the liberated silica and the target LSC is then achieved via a final flotation step.

The hematite plant is a scavenging plant that treats the magnetite plant cobber and the rougher LIMS tailings. The material is first reground in order to increase particle liberation. Hematite is then recovered in a high intensity magnetic separation step and sent to a desliming thickener for dewatering and for slime particles removal. The target HSC is then achieved via a final flotation step. Similar to the magnetite plant, the HSC has to undergo a flotation step and further regrinding to produce a low silica grade concentrate. The reground product is sent to a final flotation step to produce the LSC.

Finally, the magnetite and hematite concentrates are combined, thickened, filtered and dried for transport and pellet production.

The pellet plant is designed to produce 17.0 Mtpy of fired pellets in two (2) completely identical and independent processing lines. The production rate is based on induration machines designed to process magnetic concentrates. When fed by a blend of magnetite and hematite concentrates, the pellet plant production rate is expected to be lower or coke breeze addition may be required to maintain the production rate; this will have to be confirmed by further testwork.

The pellet plant processes the iron concentrate as received from the concentrator without any beneficiation plant to reduce impurity levels. There is no tailings stream at the pellet plant and no process water effluent is expected.

The pellet plant is designed to offer sufficient flexibility to produce many types of pellets from the low and high silica concentrates produced at the concentrator. The design pellet mix is:
- Direct Reduction Iron pellet ("DR") with low silica and additives content;
- High Silica Flux pellet ("HSF") with high silica and additives content.

In each processing line, concentrate is reground in HPGRs to control the concentrate Blaine in the appropriate range for balling. The pellet plant also includes dry grinding of the additives (dolomite and limestone), bentonite and coke breeze. Concentrate, bentonite, additives and coke breeze are then mixed in the proportions required by the pellet type produced. The mixed material is conveyed to the balling area. A conventional arrangement for the balling discs, the single roller deck screens and the fine and coarse green balls return conveyor is proposed. One-size green balls feed the indurating straight travelling grate. Pellets are conveyed outside the pellet plant onto product piles where the reclaiming system allows their retrieval for expedition.