The Karouni Gold Project deposits are situated on the west-northwest trending Greenstone Belts of the Palaeoproterozoic Barama-Mazaruni Supergroup interspersed with extensive Granitoid Batholiths also of Trans-Amazonian age. Basement lithologies in the project area are partially obscured by a veneer of Tertiary to Holocene sedimentary cover.

Primary gold mineralisation is exposed at several localities within the Karouni Project, the most notable being the Hicks, Smarts and Larken Zones along the northern extremity of the project. Here the White Sand Formation cover has been removed by erosion to expose the underlying mineralised Palaeoproterozoic greenstone successions of the Trans-Amazonian Barama-Mazaruni Group.

Gold mineralisation within the Karouni Gold Project comprises mesothermal quartz, quartz-carbonate, quartztourmaline structurally controlled lodes, veins, stockworks and breccia zones variously hosted by Mafic to Intermediate Volcanics and Volcanoclastics, Carbonaceous Shales and syntectonic Granitoid Stocks. Gold is commonly accompanied by pyrite and less commonly arsenopyrite, in the latter instance particularly where hosted by Carbonaceous Shales and Phyllites. In essence, the style of mineralisation is entirely consistent with similar gold-bearing Archaean and Palaeoproterozoic greenstone terrains world-wide. Gold workings associated with recent alluvial deposits are notable along virtually all streams and rivers throughout the project area, where the barren White Sand Formation cover has been removed by erosion.

Gold mineralisation at the Hicks Deposit is hosted by a northwest trending, sub-vertical to steeply southwest dipping shear zone some 2,500m in strike length and up to 60m wide in places. The shear has developed within Basalts and Andesites comprising the footwall Greenstone Succession along the north-eastern limb of a shallowly northwest plunging anticline. Auriferous mineralisation is also noted at the contacts of PorphyryGranite intrusives. The shear is comprised of semi-continuous zones of quartz lenses and quartz-carbonate veining or brecciating.

At the Smarts Deposit gold is hosted by a northwest trending, sub-vertical to steeply southwest dipping shear zone 2,800m in strike length and up to 60m wide. The shear zone has developed within Basalts and Andesites comprising the footwall Greenstone Succession along the northeast limb of a shallowly northwest plunging anticline. Auriferous mineralisation is also noted at the contacts of porphyry-granite intrusives. The shear zone is comprised of semi-continuous zones of quartz lenses and quartz-carbonate veining or brecciation.

The Karouni Gold Project will be developed initially as an open pit operation at the Smarts and Hicks Deposits. The total mine life for the pits is three years. Underground mining will be assessed later.

Mining will commence six months before the processing plant is commissioned. This will enable adequate high grade stocks to be accumulated prior to the commencement of processing.

An initial fleet comprising two excavators will commence at the Smarts and Hicks Deposits. There is sand overburden up to 30m thick covering much of the Smarts Deposit whereas the Hicks Deposit outcrops. Initial ore production will be sourced from the Smarts Deposit with production at the Hicks Deposit commencing in month 5. Ore production will then focus on the higher grade Smarts Deposit. An additional fleet is mobilised after 5 months to provide additional capacity for the Hicks Deposit. This fleet is then demobilised in month 30 with a second fleet demobilised in month 29 and open pit mining concluded in month 36.

The Smarts Deposit will be mined as a 4 stage pit. The first two stages will target shallow, higher grade pods with the final two stages amalgamating the pits into a single final pit. Mining will be via conventional backhoe configured excavators loading 30t rigid trucks. Mining will be done on 2.5m flitches over a 5m high blast. Initial sand overburden removal will be free dig with no blasting required.

Mining parameters at the Hicks Deposit will be the same as those used for designing the Smarts Pits.

The proposed method of gold recovery is via a conventional CIL gold processing facility. This will involve crushing, grinding, leaching and adsorption followed by elution and electrowinning. Final product will be gold in the form of doré bars. The plant throughput rate is designed to treat 1,000,000 tonnes per annum of run of mine ore delivered to the primary crusher.

The process plant design is based on a conventional CIL plant with primary and secondary crushing to produce mill feed for the grinding circuit where water is added. The mill product will be controlled by the use of hydro-cyclones to produce the desired feed size to the leach circuit. A pre-leach thickener will be used to control leach feed density. Oversize material returning from the cyclones for further grinding will pass over screens to remove the +2mm material. The +2mm material will overflow the screen back to the grinding mill, while the -2mm undersize is fed to two centrifugal concentrators for recovery ........