Haile is situated within the northeast-trending Carolina Terrane, also known as the Carolina Slate Belt, which hosts the past-producing Ridgeway, Brewer and Barite Hill gold mines in South Carolina. Haile is the largest gold deposit in the eastern USA. The Haile district consists of nine gold deposits within a 3.5 km by 1 km area. Haile occurs within a variably deformed ENE-trending structural zone at or near the contact between metamorphosed Neoproterozoic volcanic and sedimentary rocks. Haile is hosted in laminated siltstones and minor volcanic rocks of the Upper Persimmon Fork Formation and is dissected by barren NNW-striking diabase dikes. Deformation includes brittle and ductile styles with ENE-trending foliation, faults, brecciation, and isoclinal folds. Sedimentary rocks are folded within an ENE-trending anticlinorium with a steep SE limb and a gentle NW limb. Gold mineralization is assumed at ~549 Ma based on closely associated molybdenite dated using Re-Os (Mobley et al., 2014), which postdates peak volcanism and predates the Alleghanian greenschist facies metamorphic deformation. Pressure shadows around pyrite grains, stretched pyrite and pyrrhotite grains, and flattened hydrothermal breccia clasts indicate that there has been deformation subsequent to sulphide mineralization. These observations are consistent with either pre- or syn-tectonic gold mineralization. Interpreted timing of gold mineralization coincides with a major tectonostratigraphic change from ........

Haile is currently being mined using conventional open pit methods and OceanaGold plans to continue with current mining methods. The material encountered at Haile is a combination of soft (Costal Plains Sands [CPS] and saprolite) and hard (metavolcanics and metasediments) rock units. CPS is loosely consolidated sand which can be mined without the need for drilling and blasting. Mineralization is not present in CPS thus drilling for the purposes of ore control and waste classification is not necessary. Saprolite is mined without blasting where possible. Saprolite is sampled for waste classification to meet the requirements in Haile’s Overburden Management Plan (OMP). Drilling and blasting are required in all hard rock. Drilling and blasting are performed on 10 m benches. Multiple bit sizes (115 mm, 171 mm, 200 mm) are used depending on material type and application. Blast hole depth is 10 m plus subdrill; subdrill ranges from 1.4 m to 1.9 m. The number of samples taken per blasthole is material-type dependent. Blastholes in waste are typically sampled twice on 5m intervals (top half and bottom half). Blastholes in ore are typically sampled three times at 3.3 m sample intervals. Flitch height is variable. Waste is typically mined on a 10 m flitch and ore is typically mined on a 3.3 m flitch. Ore is usually mined with hydraulic backhoe excavators, while the majority of waste is mined with hydraulic shovels. Front-end loaders may be used in either application in back-up capa ........

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