The Cavanacaw deposit can be characterised as of Palaeozoic orogenic type. Orogenic gold deposits are typified by quartz-carbonate-sulphide dominant vein systems associated with deformed metamorphic terranes of all ages. Mineralisation displays strong structural controls at a variety of scales. Deposits are most commonly located on second- or third-order structures in the vicinity of largescale compressional or transpressional structures formed at convergent margins (Groves et al. 2003).

The Cavanacaw gold deposit is one of several orogenic structurally controlled, mesothermal gold bearing quartz and quartz-sulphide vein systems located in the Caledonian basement rocks that underlie the area north of the Iapetus suture in the British Isles.

Mineralisation
Gold mineralisation is known in the Cavanacaw vein swarm and in two showings in the Cornavarrow Burn some 5 kilometres to the west. Numerous other mainly geochemical targets for undiscovered gold mineralisation exist throughout the licence area which is largely covered by glacial till and, in the higher areas, by hill peat.

The Kearney structure, as revealed by trenching, is a very complex zone of quartz-sulphide mineralisation and associated alteration, along which there has clearly been pre- to post-mineralisation movement, resulting in an irregular lattice-work of mineralised veins.

Quartz veins may swell from stringers to a width of over a metre, over a distance of several ........

November, 2022 - Two stoping zones have been opened, each with two stopes currently mined and backfilled:
- Zone 1 is between 1,060- and 1,072-level north.
- Zone 2 is between 1,072- and 1,084-level south.
- Modified Avoca method of longhole open stoping is being used.
- Mucking is carried out using remote controlled LHD units.
- Backfill is a combination of cement aggregate fill, cement rock fill and waste rock.

Feasibility study (2014)
The economic veins of the deposit will be extracted using a combination of Sublevel Longhole Stoping and Shrinkage Stoping mining methods. Paste backfill will be utilized to maximize extraction whilst increasing stability and will reduce the surface footprint required for tailings disposal.

Both methods of ore extraction are to be used depending on the geometry of the ore veins. The stopes once mined, will be back filled using development waste rock or a cemented paste comprising of tailings that have been stockpiled from past mining activity. Both stoping methods will be modernised to minimise traditional safety risks whilst maximising production.

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