Mining Plus visited the site on 6 and 7 June 2022 and can confirm the deposit type as described in Woodman and van Osta (Woodman, 2007). They describe the principal deposit at Diba and Diba NW as analogous to the Sadiola Gold Mine, located 20km north of the Diba & Lakanfla project. However, the Sadiola deposit occurs in rocks assigned to the Kofi Formation, whereas the Diba discovery occurs in rocks assigned to the Kéniébandi Formation. Until the discovery at Diba, no significant gold deposits had been recognized in the Kéniébandi Formation of western Mali.

Common features of the orogenic gold deposits in the Kéniéba-Kédougou inlier are their shear-hosted character, the intimate association of the gold mineralization with permeable lithologies and fractured host rocks, producing stratabound mineralized bodies, and the link between gold mineralization and carbonatisation and Fe-rich alteration.

The source of orogenic gold has been strongly debated. In particular, the composition and source of hydrothermal fluids that sourced the gold mineralizationin Mali had been poorly studied until very recently. Simon and Pizarro (Simon, 2013)reviewed a detailed geological study at Loulo, which included fluid-inclusion investigations, and determined that low-salinity, reduced, CO2-rich metamorphic fluids were associated with gold mineralization at Loulo, which is consistent with many orogenic gold fluid studies worldwide. The geological study considered the hyper-sali ........

The pit optimisation was completed based on a selling price of USD$1,750/oz Au.

Pit shell selection was performed for mine design and planning. At Diba Pit 99 with a profit factor of 100% was selected. At Lakanfla Pit 57 was chosen with a profit factor of 83%.

Tonnage of PMI content inside the selected Diba pit shell includes 6,080 kt of PMI with an average grade of 1.22 g/t of Au and includes a stripping ratio (waste:PMI) of 1.04. Lakanfla pit shell includes 3,420 kt of PMI with an average grade of 0.70 g/t of Au and includes a stripping ratio (waste:PMI) of 0.99.

A conceptual mine design has been completed based on the optimal pit shell generated, assuming the use of rigid off road trucks with ~100t tray capacity. The pit design was prepared using a minimum mining width of 30m with a ramp width of 16m single lane; 25m dual lane and 10% gradient. Face angles used are 50° for the oxide zone, 60° for the transitional and 65° for the fresh rock zone.

The mining plan requires limited initial waste stripping using a PC1250-8 and a CAT365 excavator. Mining would be via conventional open-pit methods (drilling, blasting, loading, haulage and ancillary services). It is expected that oxide material is free dig and will not require blasting, however a blasting cost has been applied to 15% of oxide tonnage in case of any difficult ground. The use of a mining contractor for earth movement has been assumed for both mine plans

Min ........

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