Deposit Types
The Goliath Project hosts a hybrid deposit-type model, also known as a “Pre-orogenic Atypical Greenstone Belt Gold Model” as a promising genetic model to explain the geology, structures and mineralisation observed within the Goliath deposit. In this model, early gold-rich volcanogenic sulphide mineralisation is overprinted by subsequent deformation and alteration events which can contribute to further concentration and/or remobilising of both precious and base metals. This model also integrates potential VMS and Magmatic Hydrothermal Archean Lode Gold Deposit (“Magmatic Hydrothermal”) models in the formation of the deposit. It is likely that the Goliath deposit does not fit into any one idealised model and neither should be discounted.

The Goldlund Project hosts Archean, shear zone-hosted quartz vein mineralisation (Archean lode- gold), occurring as extensional quartz vein systems, particularly between rocks with high competency contrast. Archean lode-gold deposits occur in a broad range of structural settings, and at different crustal levels, but they share a similarity in ore fluid characteristics. Mineralisation is typically late tectonic, occurring after the main phases of regional thrusting and folding, and generally late-syn to post-peak metamorphism with most of the significant deposits in areas of greenschist facies. Many deposits are related to the reactivation of earlier structures.

Archean lode-gold occurrences are common in the Sandybeach Lake – Sioux Lookout area and are concentrated in the Southern and Central volcanic belts. Vein systems in both belts are the product of Stage 3 deformation and are related to the northeast-southwest extension associated with northwest-southeast compression and shortening; the brittle-ductile deformation near the steep, northeast-trending shear zones; and the tightening of the Stage 3 folds.

The Miller Project mineralisation fits an Archean shear-zone hosted quartz vein model (Archean lode gold). The Archean lode gold occurrences are common in the Sandy Beach Lake - Sioux Lookout area and are concentrated in the Southern and Central Volcanic Belts.

Geology Setting & Mineralisation
The Goliath Gold Project is located in the Archean Eagle-Wabigoon-Manitou greenstone belt in the Wabigoon Subprovince of the Superior Province. In the immediate area of the deposit, a 100 to 150 m thick unit of intensely deformed and variably altered, fine- to medium-grained, muscovite- sericite schist and biotite-muscovite schist with minor metasedimentary rocks hosts the most significant concentrations of gold in the Main and C Zones of the deposit.

Native gold and silver are associated with finely disseminated sulphides, coarse-grained pyrite and very narrow light grey translucent “ribbon” quartz veining. The main sulphide phases are pyrite, sphalerite, galena, pyrrhotite, minor chalcopyrite and arsenopyrite and dark grey needles of stibnite. The alteration consists of primarily sericitisation and silicification in association with the gold mineralisation.

At Goliath, the gold-bearing zones strike from 090° to 072° with dips that are consistently between 72° and 78° south or southeast. The mineralised zones are tabular composite units defined on the basis of moderate to strongly altered rock units, anomalous to strongly elevated gold concentrations, and increased sulphide content and are concordant to the local stratigraphic units. In the Goliath deposit, higher grade gold mineralisation occurs in shoots with relatively short strike-lengths (up to 50 m) that plunge steeply to the west. The main area of gold, silver and sulphide mineralisation and alteration occurs up to a maximum drill-tested vertical depth of ~805 m, over a drill-tested strike-length in excess of 2,500 m. The mineralised zones remain open at depth.

The Goldlund Project is situated in northwestern Ontario approximately 60 km by road east of the town of Dryden, with a land package that covers a strike-length of over 50 km of greenstone belt in the Archean Wabigoon Subprovince. Historical gold production from the Goldlund and Windward mines is reported to be 18,000 oz of gold, with mining activities carried out between 1982 and 1985 using both open pit and underground mining methods.

Gold mineralisation is hosted by zones of northeast-trending and gently to moderately northwest- dipping quartz stockworks, comprised of numerous quartz veinlets less than 1 to 20 cm thick. The stockwork zones are hosted in albite-trondhjemite to diorite (granodiorite) strata-parallel sills, which dip from vertical to -80° southward and range in thickness from 14 m to 60 m. The stockwork zones form bands within the granodiorite sills that intrude the eastnortheast-trending mafic metavolcanic rocks. The quartz veins and veinlets contain occasional fine-grained to coarse-grained pyrite. The intervening areas between the quartz veinlets exhibit strong to moderate feldspathic alteration associated with common fine- to medium-grained pyrite and magnetite.

The mineralised sills strike generally northeast (065°) and dip steeply to the southeast. The quartz stockwork veins at Goldlund consist of two synchronous sets of veins, referred to as the 20 set and the 70 set (Pettigrew, 2012). The gold-bearing veins display a remarkable consistency in form across the project.

The gold mineralisation has been interpreted as a series of nine northeast-trending subparallel zone wireframes, considering a nominal 0.1 g/t Au threshold. Wireframes of Zones 1, 7, and 5 consist principally of gold mineralisation associated with the stockwork veins in the large granodiorite sills, while wireframes of Zones 2, 3, 4, 6, 8, and 9 consist of gold mineralisation associated with stockwork veins that are hosted in several lithologies including andesite, and felsic to intermediate porphyries, with only a minor contribution from the granodiorite sills. While the Qualified Person for this section of the report believes that the interpretation of the mineralised zone wireframes is suitable for the estimation of mineral resources, the development of a 3D model of lithology, structure, and alteration would help to improve the interpretation of the mineralised zones and the understanding of the controls on gold mineralisation.

The mine designs and schedule for both the open pit and underground utilise inferred resources as part of the analysis. Mineral resources that are not mineral reserves do not have demonstrated economic viability. The preliminary economic assessment is preliminary in nature in that it includes inferred mineral resources that are considered too speculative to have economic considerations applied to them and should not be relied upon for that purpose.

The Goliath Gold Complex PEA is based on the mining of three deposits: Goliath, Goldlund and Miller. All three areas would be mined by open pit methods, with Goliath also being mined by underground methods beneath the open pit.

The mine schedule provides 24.0 Mt of mill feed grading 1.47 g/t gold and 1.82 g/t silver over a 13.5-year mine life after one year of pre-stripping. The open pit mining sequence begins with Goliath in pre-production and then Goldlund starts in Year 1. Miller is started in Year 6 and finishes in Year 9. At that time, open pit mining is complete. The underground mine at Goliath starts in Year 3 with first delivery of mill feed in Year 4. Underground mining continues until Year 11. The processing facility will continue to be fed from stockpiles at Goliath until the middle of Year 14.

Mill feed from Goldlund and Miller are proposed to be transported to the Goliath process plant site with highway tractors and belly dump trucks. This transport will require the use of a portion of Highway 72, as well as an upgraded road across forestry lands to reduce traffic interaction and eliminate disturbance to the nearby communities.

The PEA has three pit areas (Goliath, Goldlund and Miller) with some having multiple phases. Goliath contains four phases with Phase 4 acting as the portal for the underground mine. Goldlund has six phases: two in the main pit area and four satellite pits. Miller is a single phase to be mined near the end of the project life. These provide a total of 21.0 Mt of open pit mill feed grading 1.16 g/t gold and 0.80 g/t silver. Waste movement from these phases amounts to 82.5 Mt, giving a strip ratio of 3.93:1 (waste: mill feed).

The pits are built on 10 m benches with safety berm placement each 20 m. Ramps are at a 10% gradient and have been designed for 91 tonne haulage trucks.

The PEA schedule calls for the development of the underground mine starting in Year 3. The underground mining area is an extension of the Goliath open pit. The depth of the open pit is planned to be approximately 100 m below surface. The underground area extend to around 640 m below surface and measures a total of approximately 3 km along strike. Approximately 11% of the underground material to be processed is derived from inferred resources. The dip of the deposit varies from around 70 to around 80 degrees, averaging 75 degrees.

An elevated cut-off net value of $110/t was applied to plan stopes which approximates to a gold cut-off grade of 2.0 g/t and was calculated to provide a minimum net revenue of $20/t from all mineralisation mined. Stope width typically varies from a minimum stope width of 1.8 m to around 11 m with some pinching and swelling, but averages around 6.2 m in width. In the deposit, ground conditions are considered to be fair to good and good in the footwall and hanging wall sequences. Cablebolt installation in stope hanging walls is planned to maintain stability and minimise waste dilution.

Longhole retreat stoping will be the primary underground mining method. Where production grade is estimated to be below 4.0 g/t Au, a permanent rib pillar is planned between adjacent stopes, resulting in approximately 15% in-situ losses, and uncemented rockfill will be used. Where production grade is estimated to be above 4.0 g/t Au, there are no planned pillars; cemented rockfill will be utilised to extract this higher grade material.

Life-of-mine underground feed to the process plant is estimated to be 2.97 Mt with a gold grade of 3.67 g/t Au and 9.05 g/t Ag resulting in an estimated revenue of $200/t net of operating costs. Planned steady-state production rate is 1,400 t/d. Initial mill feed release is planned in Year 4, the second year after the commencement of underground mine development, increasing to full production by Year 6. Total production life is planned to extend slightly over seven years.

Crushing Circuit
ROM production is delivered by haul truck to the ROM feed bin where production from the Goliath, Goldlund and Miller deposits will feed the crushing circuit. ROM stockpiles can be blended as required to stabilise plant feed grade and material hardness when deposits are being mined simultaneously.

ROM material is fed into the crushing circuit to a vibrating grizzly screen. Grizzly screen oversize will then feed the primary jaw crusher, while grizzly undersize will bypass primary crushing. The material will then be reduced for secondary and tertiary screening and crushing before reaching the mill feed stockpile. Crushing circuit product is designed to be 80% passing size of 8 mm.

Mill Feed Stockpile
Crushing circuit product is conveyed to a covered mill feed stockpile. The stockpile is designed to have a live capacity of 24 hours and live retention 5,360 tonnes. The stockpile ensures the processing plant operates independently of the mining and crushing activities, providing constant feed to the grinding circuit.

Grinding
Mill feed is reclaimed from the mill feed stockpile by two apron feeders. From the apron feeders, the crushed mineralised rock is fed to a ball mill by a conveyor. Process water is added to the conveyor discharge to create to slurry the crushed mineralisation in the ball mill for particle size reduction. The mill also receives oversized material from the gravity scalping screen and the underflow from the hydrocyclone cluster pack. The mill is operated in closed circuit where the product is discharged into a common pumpbox for both the hydrocyclone cluster pack and the gravity circuit, material that is too coarse at either unit operations will report back for further size reduction. This three-stage crushing and ball mill reduction circuit is known as a 3CB comminution circuit.

Ball mill product feeds the ball mill pumpbox where slurry is pumped to a hydrocyclone cluster as well as a gravity circuit. The hydrocyclones classify ball mill discharge to achieve the particle size required for leaching. Optimal leaching can be done at a hydrocyclone overflow 80% passing size of 75 microns. The hydrocyclone underflow containing larger particles returns to the ball mill for further size reduction, the circulating load within the ball mill hydrocyclone circuit is expected to be 350%.

The Goldlund deposit will require a finer grind for leaching. Particles leaving the grinding circuit through the hydrocyclone overflow will be required to have an 80% passing size of 75 microns.

The process plant includes the following:
- three-stage crushing of run-of-mine material;
- covered crushed material stockpile to provide buffer capacity for the process plant;
- ball mill with cyclone classification;
- gravity recovery of ball mill discharge by one semi-batch centrifugal gravity concentrator, followed by intensive cyanidation of the gravity concentrate and electrowinning of the pregnant leach solution;
- trash screening;
- pre-aeration, leach and carbon-in-leach adsorption;
- acid washing of loaded carbon and Anglo-American Research Laboratory (AARL) type elution followed by electrowinning and smelting to produce doré;
- carbon regeneration cyanide destruction of tailings using SO2/air process;
- carbon safety screening, and tailings disposal;
- reagent storage and distribution;
- water services (process water, treated water, fire water, gland water);
- potable water treatment and distribu ........