The Sugar Zone Deposit is interpreted as an orogenic, mesothermal gold deposit located in a zone of high strain within the Dayohessarah Greenstone Belt. The Deposit is hosted in mediummetamorphic grade (amphibolite) rocks that exhibit ductile deformation and have been intruded by felsite and porphyry sills. The gold is associated with silica-sulphide-potassic alteration.

The Sugar Zone and Middle Zone mineralization typically comprises tabular, narrow veins, approximately 1.5 m to 3 m thick, and dipping at around 70° to the southwest. Excessive dilution is potentially a major risk to operating success in narrow mineralization. Longitudinal longhole retreat stoping was selected as appropriate for this Deposit based on the favourable geometry, current geotechnical knowledge and success of the Bulk Sample trial mining. Both the ore and the host rock are sufficiently competent to facilitate the void sizes required for effective longhole stoping.

The longhole open stoping mining method provides the following advantages:
- Safe – personnel do not enter the production mining voids (remote-controlled equipment only).
- Proven – many instances of the methods application throughout the world.
- Highly mechanized – reduces personnel exposure to health and safety risks.
- Easy access to resources – skilled labour and equipment are readily accessible locally and around the world.
- Low cost – leverages off large drill and blast scale and minimization of development.

Paste backfill is the primary fill type and has the following advantages:
- Reduces the need for rock pillars, maximizing ore recovery.
- Reduces the duration of the stoping cycle.
- Reduces the number of diesel powered loading and hauling units underground thereby reducing the overall primary ventilation.
- Reduces the size of the surface tailings storage facility.

The paste backfill plant was designed to generate paste backfill at a rate of 320 m3 of backfill per day. The schedule calls for an average paste backfill rate of 210 m3 of total backfill per day, implying a 65% utilization factor of the paste backfill plant. An agitator truck (typical concrete delivery truck) will transport the paste backfill from the paste backfill plant to various paste backfill holes located along strike directly above the orebody. All critical paste backfill lines will be duplicated or “twinned” to permit filling activities to continue in the event of line blockage. Underground reticulation lines will direct the paste backfill from the bottom of the surface delivery hole along the levels and into the stopes and will comprise drilled holes, steel pipe and HDPE pipe. Paste backfill barricades will be constructed in the lower sill drives using predominantly waste rock that is sealed with dry-mix shotcrete. Each barricade will be removed prior to blasting the next stope.

The existing process plant currently produces both a gold doré bar and a bagged gold concentrate through gravity concentration and flotation circuits, respectively. The process plant was originally commissioned at 575 tpd and is awaiting a permit to increase the production rate incrementally to its nameplate 800 tpd. The increase in production will be achieved by running the crushing plant longer every day and increasing the speed of various mechanical equipment items within the process plant.

The major process steps in the existing process plant are as follows:
- Primary and Secondary Crushing
- Fine Feed Storage (Stockpile)
- Grinding (Ball Mill)
- Gravity Concentration
- Flotation
- Concentrate Thickening and Filtration
- Tailings Thickening
- Reagents Makeup
- Process Water, Clean Water, Fire Water
- Paste Backfill.