The Almas Project three main gold deposits, Paiol, Cata Funda and Vira Saia are along a 15 km long corridor of the Almas Greenstone Belt, a Paleoproterozoic volcano-sedimentary sequence which hosts numerous orogenic gold occurrences.

The known gold occurrences in the Almas area are classified as orogenic, shear-hosted mesothermal gold deposits. Minor occurrences of lateritic or even placer gold are also found in the area, but are typically small and not the target of current exploration.

The Cata Funda - Paiol Trend is a structural domain within the Almas volcano-sedimentary sequence that contains the primary and secondary gold targets. The Paiol and Cata-Funda deposits have many similarities with respect to mineralization type, geometry and lithologies, although some distinctive characteristics are
noted.

The Paiol deposit is located in the middle portion of the Almas Belt, approximately 500m east of the metabasalt/intrusive contact. The metabasalts that host mineralization display a primary foliation of 280° azimuth with a 65° dip. The mineralization is a result of hydrothermal alteration processes controlled by shear zones. Based on the drilling data, the altered rocks form a trend at least 1400m long, varying from 40m to 140m wide from south to north, respectively.

The mineralization is continuous and confined to certain parts of the hydrothermal alteration package. The higher potential of the deposit is located in the north-central part of the ore body where an intersection between the main shear zone and a secondary north-south shear zone has been interpreted.

The main Paiol ore body has overall dimensions of approximately 650m in the down dip direction, 1,250m along strike and averages 27m thick.

The Cata Funda deposit is situated in the northern portion of the Almas Greenstone Belt, immediately southeast of the Almas town site. The deposit is hosted in metabasic and metasedimentary rocks that display hydrothermal alteration processes as sericitization, carbonization, albitization and silicification. Host rocks are in contact with siliceous breccias and quartz-carbonate schists to the west and with tourmaline-bearing quartzites and metapelites of the Morro do Carneiro Formation to the northeast.

The gold mineralization occurs primarily in the central portion of the structure which displays zoned alteration assemblages like that previously described for the Paiol deposit.

The Cata Funda ore body has overall dimensions of approximately 240m in the down dip direction, 230m along strike and averages 10m thick.

The Vira Saia deposit is hosted in the granitic gneiss complex. These complexes are composed of isotropic to weakly-foliated granitoid plutons which have been variably classified as tonalites, trondhjemites, granodiorites, quartz monzonites, amphibole-quartz diorite and monzogranites. A second granitoid suite composed of the same lithologies but containing biotite as the primary mafic mineral, is recognized in the region.

At Vira Saia, a shear zone (N45°W) developed in granodiorite controls brecciation, alteration and gold mineralization.

The main Vira-Saia ore body has overall dimensions of approximately 200m in the down-dip direction, 300m along strike and averages 15m thick. Exploration has also identified three smaller ore bodies designated: East Body, NW Body and NW Extension Body.

At Vira Saia gold is closely associated with sulfide-bearing, quartz-sericite rich ultramylonites formed in the core of shear zones developed in granodiorite. Chalcopyrite and galena are very rare. Intensity of the hydrothermal alteration is proportional to the progressive deformation in the shear zone. Quartz veins typically have saccaroidal (sugary) textures, believed to have formed by dynamic crystallization in shear zones, suggesting a syntectonic timing of vein formation.

The Almas Gold project is planned to consist of three open pit operations which will utilize a combination of hydraulic excavators, large front end loaders and 35-tonne haul trucks as the primary mining equipment.

The project mine plan targets the mining of ore by open pit mining methods. Given that the waste material is more homogeneous, compact, and easier to drill and blast than the ore material, the equipment mining efficiency rate will be higher in waste material. The mine schedule resulted in an average production rate of 2.0 Mt of run-ofmine (ROM) hard-rock ore at 0.86 grams per tonne ex-pit and 132 Mt of waste over the 15 year life of the project. The mining schedule is based on an annual 12 months of operation.

The road design parameters for all deposits included a 10 percent grade and 12 and 15 meter wide access ramps. The ramps will have protective side berms whose height equals half that of the truck’s tire diameter. A minimum width between haul trucks travelling on same haul road is 3.5 times the truck width, as per standard global mining operations.

The process plant is designed to treat 2 Mt of ore per annum from the Almas district deposits. It consists of the following areas:
- crushing and ore stockpiling
- grinding
- gravity concentration
- thickening
- carbon in leach (CIL)
- acid wash
- elution
- electrowinning and smelting
- carbon regeneration
- cyanide destruction
- reagent preparation.

The crushing plant is designed to treat the ore at a rate of 312 t/h solids with 5% moisture, yielding a P80 of 6.71 mm. The crushing system will consist of a primary jaw crusher operating in open circuit, one secondary crusher operating in closed circuit, and two parallel tertiary crushers operating in closed circuit. The plant will have a nominal operation of operate 6,570 h/a (equivalent to 18 h/d).

The run-of-mine ore (ROM) will be fed to the crushing plant either by direct dumping into the ROM dump hopper from haul trucks (40 t capacity each) or by front-end loader from stockpiles.

Ore will be recovered from the stockpile onto the ball mill feed conveyors by four variable speed belt feeders discharging the material onto the belt conveyors feeding the mill.

The grinding circuit will consist of a F5 m by L9 m and 3,750 kW power ball mill operating in closed circuit (290% nominal circulating load) with size classification through hydrocyclone cluster (five operating, one stand-by, 20 in diameter). The ball mill discharge will be pumped to the hydrocyclones. Cyclone overflow will be the final product of the grinding circuit, which nominal P80 was set as 74 µm with 25% solids. Most of the cyclone underflow will return to the ball mill for further size reduction, while a 33% portion thereof will be bled to the gravity concentration circuit. Material larger than 3.9 mm will be scalped from the gravity concentrator feed by an inclined vibrating screen for return to the grinding circuit. The scalping screen undersize will feed the centrifugal concentration unit, to recover the free gold. The concentrate will feed the intensive leaching reactor, which will use cyanide leaching solution to be prepared in a preparation tank included in the package. The concentrator and intensive leaching tailings will return to a pumpbox to be recirculated to the ball mill. The intensive leaching pregnant solution will be pumped to a heated solution tank for feeding the electrowinning cell. The hydrocyclone overflow will gravitate to a trash screen (0.6 mm opening screening 50 m3 /(h•m2) to remove any wood chip and oversize material prior to feeding the CIL plant. The trash screen undersize will feed a high rate thickener to adjust the pulp density prior to the CIL circuit. A concrete sump area will contain mill and cyclone spillage with an inclined floor to direct spillage to two sump pumps.

The gold will be extracted in a CIL circuit and comprise five continuous stirred cyanide leaching reactors connected in series, each with a design capacity of 2,318 m3. The leaching reaction will be performed with a dosage of 500 g (NaCN)/t(ore), contained in a cyanide solution at a concentration of 500 ppm. Milk of lime will be added to control pH to a target value of 10. The total CIL residence time will be 20 hours (4 hours per tank) operating at 40% solids by weight. The gold will be adsorbed into activated carbon, dosed at 40 g/t of ore and flowing countercurrent to the ore slurry by way of recessed impeller vertical spindle pumps suspended in each CIL tank, at a rate of 120 min/tank. Inter-stage pumping screens will be installed to enable the carbon to flow. Bypass facilities will be provided to allow any tank to be taken out of service without interrupting production.

Oxygen demand in the leach slurry will be met by low pressure compressed air at the rate of 1.08 Nm3/h/m3 of slurry. Two vertical drainage pumps will be provided for spillage handling in the leach and CIL area. Slurry from the last CIL tank will flow to a linear carbon safety screen for treatment in the cyanide destruction area.

Recovery of gold from carbon desorption will be performed in a sequence of batch processes including acid washing, carbon elution, electrowinning and smelting to produce gold bullions. The washed carbon will be transferred by
gravity into the elution column, with 3 t capacity. A hot solution containing 3% sodium hydroxide and 15% hydrated ethanol will be used to elute the gold from the carbon. Elution will continue for 16 hours at 95°C at a rate of two bed volumes per hour, with subsequent eluate pumping to the two electrowinning cells.

In the two electrowinning cells (10 m3 volume each), the gold will be deposited on wire wool cathodes. The barren solution will be recirculated to the elution tank.

The electrowinning process will last 16 hours for the elution pregnant solution and 12 hours for the intensive leaching pregnant solution. The process is carried out at a temperature of 80°C, until the gold content in the feed to the cells is less than 5 ppm. At this stage the contents of the elution column will be cooled and the stripped carbon will be hydraulically transferred to the regeneration kiln feed hopper, or directed to the last CIL tank, depending on the regeneration regime adopted or if the regeneration facility is off line. Regeneration will be conducted at 750°C in a regeneration kiln followed by a quench tank and fines removal screening. The reactivated carbon will be returned to the last CIL tank.

Fully loaded cathodes will be periodically removed from the electrowinning cells and the gold sludge removed by a high pressure water washer. The sludge will be calcined in an electric calcination furnace and the calcined sludge will be mixed with fluxes and loaded into a diesel-fired smelting furnace. During smelting, metal oxides will be slagged, and when the furnace crucible contents are poured into cascade molds, the gold will solidify at the bottom while the lighter slag separates easily. The gold bars will be cleaned and labeled ready for shipping. Slag will be crushed and recycled to the ball mill to recover any entrapped gold.