Cannington is a Broken Hill Type (BHT) silver-lead-zinc massive sulphide deposit hosted by Proterozoic age high-grade metamorphic lithologies of the Soldiers Cap Group, located in the Eastern Succession of the Mount Isa Block. Mineralisation is stratiform bound along the limbs of a tight isoclinal recumbent synform with an easterly dip and a southerly plunge. The core of the synform is composed of amphibolite with encompassing silver-lead-zinc sulphide mineralisation. The mineralisation has been divided into nine types based on textural, mineralogical and geochemical characteristics which assist in defining metallurgical performance.

The Cannington mineralisation is hosted within a 70 m to 90 m thick of interbedded garnetiferous psammite and basic volcanic units that enclose a fine to medium grained central amphibolite body up to 100 m thick. The psammite is itself intercalated with muscovite-sillimanite schist and enclosed by migmatitic quartzon feldspathic gneiss. Pegmatite horizons that are semi-conformable within the deposit sequence are thought to be predominantly the result of partial melts of clastic rocks within this package (Mark, 1993).

Structure
The psammite sequence is folded into a tight, northerly striking isoclinal recumbent fold that plunges to the south with limbs dipping between 40O and 70O to the east as the result of the second of four structural events (D1 to D4) described by Bailey (1998). Two major northwest trending D4 faults ........

Cannington consists of an underground hard rock mine and surface processing facility, a road-to-rail transfer facility and a concentrate handling and ship loading facility at the Port of Townsville.

In Q4 FY22 Cannington transitioned to 100 per cent truck haulage to bring product to the surface.

The underground mine is accessed via a single surface portal with a decline extending to a depth of 645m below surface. Stope production is conducted using the Long Hole Open Stoping (LHOS) with backfill mining method. The primary backfill method is paste fill with a supplementary use of ROM waste and ROM paste rock.

The stoping areas are accessed by sub-levels developed on a nominal 25 m vertical interval.

A number of ore passes, developed in ore, feed to a crusher loading level. Approximately two-thirds of the ore is crushed underground at the underground crushing station located at the base of the mining operation and hoisted to the surface. A 5.6 m diameter hoisting shaft extends to a depth of 650 m and is equipped with a tower mounted friction winder.

The balance of the ore is hauled directly to the surface via decline access, passes through a crushing plant and is stockpiled on the run-of-mine (“ROM”) ore stockpile.

Once stopes have been completely mined, they are backfilled with waste rock or paste. Paste fill is delivered from the paste plant to the underground workings for distribution via a conveyor syste ........

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