The current interpretation is that Montagne d’Or is a deformed volcanogenic massive sulphide deposit (Ross 2014).

The Montagne d’Or prospect consists of a family of tabular mineralized bodies that form closelyspaced sub-parallel east-northeast (084°) striking and steeply (72°) south-dipping mineralized zones. Mineralization has been encountered over a strike length of more than 2,500 m and to a vertical depth of at least 200 m. Only a small portion of the gold mineralization has been subjected to upper level oxidation. The significant fine-grained gold mineralization is principally affiliated with sulphide veins and masses within fresh country rock that begins at shallow depths.

Two significant styles of gold mineralization have been recognized although they show a gradational relationship between each other:

-SMS with gold mineralization
-Sulphides in disseminated stringers with gold mineralization

SMS was a term coined by previous operators and was used to support a “VMS” type model for the mineralization. It is characterized by a high sulphide content (>20%) and occurs over intervals ranging from tens of centimetres to up to 4 m. This mineralization was later interpreted to represent zones of thicker, deformed and transposed sulphide ± quartz-rich veins and a denser distribution of disseminated sulphide as compared to that of the disseminated type.

The SMS also includes sulphide-rich breccia dykes, which host rolled and milled clasts of host rock within a ductily deformed pyrite-chalcopyrite-pyrrhotite matrix. In addition, bornite is present, and minor amounts of arsenopyrite have been identified petrographically. There is a clear correlation between sulphide veinlets and sulphide-rich breccia zones and high gold grades.

Mineralization is hosted by felsic, mafic and intercalated mafic/felsic rocks to varying degrees. However, approximately 80% of the gold mineralization in the deposit occurs within the more felsic units, mainly the Felsic tuff unit.

The mineralization appears as elongated lenses of higher grade material within broader zones of low grade but anomalous mineralization (0.25 g/t Au to 0.4 g/t Au). Several distinct anomalous mineralized domains are recognized, separated by barren intercalated mafic and felsic rocks.

The Montagne d’Or deposit is now thought to be part of a stratiform/stratabound deposit type. Mineralization consists of pyrite, pyrrhotite and chalcopyrite with minor sphalerite, magnetite and arsenopyrite. Arsenopyrite, although observed, does not appear to have an obvious relationship with either gold or copper mineralization. Distinct phases are reported as stratiform disseminated sulphides, stockwork sulphide veinlets and layers of semi-massive sulphides that are tectonically transposed. The latter facies is considered as syn-volcanic in origin and as the most favourable occurrence for gold mineralization.

The disseminated sulphide veins could be related to feeder zones and/or remobilized on fold hinges and shear zones. In addition, evidence is found for tectonic remobilization with sulphides concentrated within fold hinges and pressure shadows, and cross-cutting sulphide-bearing veins.

Visible gold occurs in chlorite-rich zones or is spatially related to sulphide mineralization (after Giraud, Tremblay, Jébrak and Lefrançois, 2014). This particular 1 m interval ran 80.75 g/t Au. There is generally an increase in gold grades as sulphide (excluding pyrrhotite) content increases. Microscopic studies indicate that gold occurs as very fine grains in the host rock groundmass and at the junctions of quartz crystals. Gold has only very rarely been seen as inclusions within sulphide minerals.

The project is located on the side of a moderately sized hill, surrounded by dense tropical rainforest in a remote location that has been disturbed by historical illegal mining. Mining will be via an open pit, approximately 2.5 km long by 500 m wide, and of varying depth from surface, with a stripping ratio of 4.5 t waste:t ore. The open pit is located on the side of a hill. The average pit north wall is approximately 125 m deep from original ground surface, and the average pit south wall is approximately 225 m in height. The pit centroid depth from original ground surface is 185 m.

The mine production schedule is based on feeding the processing facility operating at a rate of 4.6 Mtpa of mill feed.

A low grade stockpile has been designed to ensure that the highest grade ore is processed first, ahead of lower grade ore which will be processed at the end of the mine life. The maximum low grade stockpile size is approximately 8 Mt. Mining rates have been adjusted by up to 30% to account for the wet and dry seasons that will be encountered during operations.

The open pit mining methods will use front-end loaders and hydraulic excavators to load haul trucks for waste and ore haulage. Mining activities will include site clearing, removal of growth medium (topsoil), free-digging, drilling, blasting, loading, hauling and mining support activities. Material within the pit will be generally blasted on a 5 m high bench. Most of the saprolite material (approximately 18% of the total material to be mined) can be loaded directly with hydraulic excavators without the need for blasting. Most ore will be sent directly to the primary crusher. The stripped waste material will be placed in dumps to the north of the pit, and low grade ore placed in a stockpile, near the primary crusher location.

Because of the large amount of rainfall, hilly terrain, and amount of saprolite, a mixed mining fleet will be employed. The first fleet comprises of 6.7 m3 capacity excavators that load 40 t articulated dump trucks. This first fleet will be used for pioneering excavation, most of the saprolite mining and can also assist with selective ore mining. As the majority of saprolite is removed and drainage improved, the second larger mining fleet of 12.0 m3 capacity excavators and 91 t capacity rear dump trucks will perform the majority of the bulk production.

The mine equipment requirements and costing were based on the purchase of new equipment. It was planned that all mine mobile equipment would be diesel-powered, to avoid the requirement to provide electrical power into the pit working areas. The mine operations schedule is proposed to include two 12-hour shifts per day, seven days per week for 355 days per year This includes an annual allowance of 10 days downtime for weather delays for most of the mine operations, and 15 days downtime for weather delays for the drilling operations.

A blasting contractor will carry out blasting activities and be responsible for explosives storage facilities at the mine site. Commencing at the same time as the mill production (Year 1) the blasting contractor will start production of bulk emulsion on site, which will be capable of sufficient bulk emulsion production over the life of the planned mining operations.

Pit waste quantities of saprolite and rock will be used in construction of the TSF embankments in particular years. The waste haulage costs for these have been included in the mining costs. A separate construction equipment fleet will be used for project construction work.

Crushing and Grinding Circuit
RoM ore will be loaded into the crushing circuit feed bin (RoM bin) by direct tipping from the mining haul trucks or by FEL.

RoM ore will be drawn from the RoM bin at a controlled rate by an apron feeder and discharged onto a vibrating grizzly. The grizzly oversize will report to the jaw crusher for primary crushing. The jaw crusher product together with grizzly undersize will report to the crusher discharge conveyor feeding directly to the crushed ore surge bin.

Ore will be withdrawn from the surge bin and fed via the mill feed conveyor to the SAG mill. Surge bin overflow will report to the conveyor feeding a dead stockpile. Ore from the dead stockpile will be loaded by FEL back into the surge bin to maintain mill feed when the crushing circuit is off line. Lime and SAG mill grinding media will be added to the mill feed conveyor as required.

The grinding circuit will consist of a SAG mill in closed circuit with a pebble crusher and hydrocyclones. Crushed ore will be fed directly to the SAG mill with process water added to the SAG mill to achieve the required milling density.

The SAG mill will discharge via a trommel onto the pebble dewatering screen. Screen oversize, consisting of pebbles and worn steel grinding media, will discharge onto the pebble discharge and pebble transfer conveyors. Worn media will be removed by a magnet and pebbles will report to the pebble crusher with crushed pebbles conveyed back to the mill feed conveyor. The facility to by-pass the crusher and recycle pebbles directly to the mill feed conveyor will be provided and is expected to be used for the majority of ore feed blends.

Trommel and screen undersize will gravitate to the mill discharge hopper and will be pumped to the hydrocyclone (cyclone) cluster for size classification.

The cyclone underflow (coarse material) will gravitate to the SAG mill feed chute for further processing. A portion of the cyclone underflow will feed the gravity circuit. The cyclone overflow (product size material) will gravitate to the trash screen for removal of trash material and coarse particles. Trash screen underflow will report to the pre leach thickener.

The treatment plant design incorporates the following unit process operations:

-Gravity concentration and removal of coarse gold from the milling circuit recirculating load and treatment of gravity concentrate by intensive cyanidation and electrowinning to recover gold to doré;

-Pre-leach thickening to increase the slurry density feeding the (CIL) circuit to minimize CIL tankage, smooth out fluctuations in the milling circuit, improve slurry mixing characteristics and reduce overall reagent consumption;

-Leach/CIL circuit incorporating a leach tank and six CIL tanks with carbon for gold adsorption providing a total of 31 hours leach time;

-A 10 tonne split AARL (Anglo American Research Laboratories) elution circuit treating loaded carbon, electrowinning and gold smelting to produce doré;

-Tails wash thickener to reduce the weak acid dissociable cyanide (CNWAD) contained in the CIL tails prior to cyanide destruction and to recover ........