The 6.5 kilometre long Brookbank shear zone hosts the Brookbank, Cherbourg, and Foxear deposits. The deposits occur along lithological contacts between mafic volcanics and metasediments. Other areas of gold mineralization are present in one or more of the localized deformation bands within the hanging wall mafic volcanics, which are generally parallel to the Brookbank main zone within the Brookbank shear zone structure.

The zones of mineralization at Brookbank, Cherbourg, and Foxear occur within one of several bands of intense deformation and hydrothermal alteration at or near the contact between domains of mafic flows and polymictic conglomerate. Hydrothermal alteration in the vicinity of the mineralization consists of silicification, carbonatization, sericitization, chloritization, hematization and sulphidization. This alteration is commonly marginal to quartz-carbonate veins, fractures, and stockworks and may exceed 50 metres in width locally.

Mineralogical studies indicate that the precious metal mineralization consists of goldsilver particles with an approximate gold to silver ratio of 80:20. The gold occurs primarily as late fracture-controlled mineralization. The mineralization forms elongate lenticular particles associated with grain boundaries and possibly crystallographic planes. The gold generally consists of fine grained free gold particles, although there is very little visible gold even in areas of plus 30 g/t Au assays. Gold values are highest in the quartz–carbonate veinlets/stringers.

Sulphide mineralization (pyrite and minor chalcopyrite) is also present within the sheared host and quartz veinlets.

Economic concentrations of gold in the Geraldton area are typical of Archean epigenetic hydrothermal gold deposits normally considered to be mesothermal lode gold deposits. The gold mineralization is primarily located in areas of high strain and deformation with brittle structures providing a pathway and also hosting mineralization as veins or replacement zones with associated alteration. There are also low grade zones that locally have less obvious structural control, less veining, and less intense hydrothermal alteration on a hand specimen scale, but these clearly have strong deposit scale structural controls.

The mineralization on the Brookbank Project occurs within quartz-carbonate veinlets/stringers, fractures and/or stockworks associated with hydrothermal alteration. The latter is generally located within bands of intense deformation at the contacts between domains of mafic flows and polymictic conglomerate.

Based on the orientation, size, and suggested competence of the rockmass, open pit and underground longitudinal blasthole stoping have been selected as the most suitable mining methods. As Brookbank is located in Northern Ontario, personnel with mining experience are assumed to be available. The mining method requires mobile equipment that is commonly used in the industry.

Open Pit Mining
Pit designs have been developed for the West Pit and the East Pit.

In the absence of a formal wall slope geotechnical evaluation, some general assumptions have been made for good quality rock. It has been assumed that 10 metre benches can be doubled up between berms and that perimeter blasting techniques, including pre-splitting, will be used to increase bench face angles.

The wall slope design parameters used for pit optimization shown that the inter-ramp wall slope could be approximately 55 degrees and the overall wall slope with one ramp crossing is approximately 46.5 degrees.

For purposes of optimization rock was assigned a slope of 50 degrees. An overburden model was not available for slope coding. Final design slopes were based upon bench face angle and berm width.

The West Pit design was generated using a 20 metre wide haulage road for two way traffic. The pit is 420 metres long in the east west direction and 85 metres wide in the north south direction and reaches a depth of 50 metres.

A smaller East Pit design was generated using a one way ramp 12 metres wide for single lane traffic. The pit is 150 metres long in the east west direction and 90 metres wide in the north south direction and reaches a depth of 30 metres.

UNDERGROUND MINING
The resource is steeply dipping (~85 degrees) with an overall nominal thickness of 5.5 metres. The underground portion of the resource is continuous and homogenous across the hanging wall and footwall of the deposit. For the purpose of this study and given these parameters, longitudinal blasthole stoping with unconsolidated and consolidated rockfill has been selected as the primary mining method.

Sublevels have been designed at 25 metre vertical intervals (floor to floor) as required to mine the resource. On each sublevel, the resource will be accessed from the centre and developed east and west along strike to a minimum mining width of 3 metres. In most cases, an overcut and undercut will be developed to mine the resource, but in some instances only an undercut will be developed followed by longhole uppers including inverse raising. Longitudinal mining will retreat from the outer limits back to the centre access point. The typical stope length will be 25 metres but may vary at the extremities of the deposit.

Stopes will be backfilled with unconsolidated and consolidated waste rock. Waste rock generated from development and open pit activities will be the primary source of backfill. Waste rock from underground and the open pit will be loaded into trucks and hauled to the surface waste pile. If a stope is available to be filled during waste haulage, the truck will dump waste into a remuck where it will be rehandled by an 8yd LHD into the open stope. When additional waste is required for fill, the 50t trucks will backhaul from the waste pile on surface and deliver underground to a remuck near the open stope to be filled.

Crushing and Reclaim
Run of mine material will be fed via a conveyor belt to a 0.81 metre (32 in.) x 1.14 metre (45 in.) jaw crusher located at the mine site. The run of mine material will be crushed to minus 89 mm (3.5 in.) and will be rehandled with a front end loader into 40 tonne capacity trucks. Trucks will travel 27 kilometres along the mine access road and Highway 11 to the mill where a second crushing step, consisting of a cone crusher, will further reduce the rock size to minus 32 mm (1.25 in.). The crushed product will be conveyed and stored in a 500 tonne capacity bin. The crushed rock will be reclaimed from the bin by two (2) vibrating feeders.

Grinding Circuit
The crushed rock reclaimed from the bin will be conveyed to a 3.90 metre (12.8 ft.) x 5.18 metres (17 ft.) ball mill driven by a 1,043 kW (1,400 HP) motor equipped with a variable speed drive. The ball mill will be operated in closed loop with a cyclone. The underflow will return to the ball mill and the overflow will feed the trash screen. The trash screen undersize will feed an 11 metre diameter pre-leach thickener that will increase the slurry density to 52.5% solids.

Brookbank run of mine material feeding the Beardmore mill. This option is the base case scenario which considers the Brookbank deposit as a stand-alone project, with its own dedicated milling facility. Option B explores the synergies of trucking the Brookbank material to the Hardrock mill.

The Brookbank Property will produce 900 tpd or 328,500 tpa of rock from an open pit and underground mine, with a combined average head grade of 5.3 g/t Au. The process plant is designed for an average throughput rate of 41 tph at 92% equipment availability.

Carbon-in-Leach
The pre-leach thickener underflow will feed a series of six (6) carbon-in-leach (CIL) tanks with a total retention time of 48 hours, while the thickener overflow water will report to the process water tank and will be reused in the grinding circuit at the rate of 50 m3/h. Periodically, when the carbon loading reaches a predetermined value, the contents of the first CIL tank will be pumped to the loaded ca ........