Sunrise Dam is considered to be a mesothermal gold deposit, typical of many orebodies found in the Archaean greenstone belts of Western Australia.

At Sunrise Dam, gold mineralisation is structurally controlled and vein hosted. The style of mineralisation can be differentiated depending on the structure or environment in which it is hosted. There are three dominant styles recognised:
- Shear-related and high strain e.g. Sunrise Shear Zone
- Stockwork development in planar faults with brittle characteristics (these occur in all rock types and are commonly concentrated at contacts within the volcanic stratigraphy or the porphyry margin and within hinge positions within the magnetite shales) e.g. Cosmo, Dolly and Vogue orebodies
- Placer-style mineralisation hosted within the fluvial sediments

Open pit production began in 1997 and the main pit was completed at a final depth of 500m below surface in 2014. Underground mining commenced in 2003 with a number of different mining methods being applied, depending on the style of mineralisation and grade of the geological domain. In 2020, pre-stripping of the Golden Delicious satellite pit commenced ahead of ore mining commencing in 2021.

Mining at Sunrise Dam consists of both surface and underground operations. Underground mining is carried out by underground mining contractors. Methods employed are domain-dependent and relate to the style of mineralisation. Sub-level open stoping methods are employed in areas where bulk mineralisation occurs (GQ, Cosmo, Dolly, and Vogue orebodies). Other areas (Cos East, SSZ, and Astro orebodies) use narrow open stoping methods. Where possible, all waste from infrastructure development is used to backfill mined stopes.

Open pit mining is carried out by open pit mining contractors and is conventional drill and blast, load and haul, with ore stockpiled on surface near the pit crest and overhauled to the ROM pad and the waste material delivered to external waste dumps.

The owner-managed processing plant comprises conventional gravity and carbonin-leach (CIL) circuits, with a flotation and fine grind circuit commissioned in mid-2018 to improve metallurgical recovery.