The gold-bearing anticlinal structures at Aureus East have a strike length of at least three km and a depth of at least 400 metres. Eighteen or more stacked saddle-reef veins have been intersected by diamond drilling or exposed in underground workings. The saddles have a crest and associated leg-reef veins. The anticlinal crests are sub-horizontal and are stacked one above the other with 20 to 40-metre spacing. Saddle 1, which begins at the portal, has been followed to the east for a strike length of 1,200 metres and collectively, mineralized veins have been traced over a strike length of 1.6 km.

The saddle veins are of milky white to grey coarse-crystalline quartz containing thin layers of argillite and/or chlorite. The veins are generally thicker at the fold apex with sharp contacts between quartz and argillite on both the hangingwall and the footwall. Common gangue minerals in the quartz include ankerite, siderite, calcite, kaolinite and chlorite. Sulphide minerals, in order of decreasing abundance, include arsenopyrite, pyrite, galena, sphalerite, chalcopyrite, pyrrhotite and stibnite. Gold commonly occurs with galena and arsenopyrite, with galena being considered the best indicator sulphide for gold. Arsenopyrite, up to a few percent, occurs within the veins and the wall rocks.

Turbidite-hosted Meguma gold deposits are a sub-type of orogenic gold deposits. Orogenic gold deposits form near or soon after peak metamorphism in collisional metamorphic terranes of all ages. These deposits exhibit strong structural control in brittle faults and ductile shear zones as quartz-dominated stockworks, breccias, sheeted veins, vein arrays, replacements, and disseminations. Most deposits formed under greenschist facies metamorphic conditions (250-350°C, 1 to 3 kbar, 2 to 20 km deep) in compressional or transpressional settings.

Mineralization occurs in quartz veins and altered wall rock, with generally high gold:silver ratios and high fineness, accompanied by 2 to 5% sulfides. Historically, high-grade veins were exploited (5-30 g/tonne), but many deposits comprise large volumes of lower-grade, bulk-mineable mineralization.

Alteration consistently adds CO2, S, K, H2O, SiO2 to wall rocks in the form of carbonates (ankerite, calcite, dolomite), sulfides (pyrite, arsenopyrite, pyrrhotite), and silicates (muscovite, biotite, K-feldspar, albite, and chlorite); scheelite and tourmaline are common, and at higher metamorphic grades amphibole, diopside, and other skarn-like replacement minerals occur. The typical geochemical signature is elevated As, B, Bi, Hg, Sb, Te, and W, with generally low Cu, Pb, and Zn. Gold was transported as sulfide complexes in reduced, nearneutral metamorphic fluids of high CO2 and low salinity and deposited by pressure decreases during episodic seismic events (leading to the characteristic banded quartz veins) or by desulfidation reactions with wall rocks.

A mining plan employing narrow vein mining techniques was prepared for the PEA. The crest areas would be mined using mechanised drifting methods. The limbs would be mined using narrow vein stoping methods such as longhole stoping or thermal fragmentation.

The general idea of the proposed plan is to drive the ramp down in the waste rock and mine the saddles from the bottom up. Main levels would be accessed off the decline at vertical intervals ranging from 50 m-100 m, targeted at the bottom of a group (or panel) of saddles. These levels would contain a main haulage drift that would run within the saddle along strike, providing access for multiple stopes to be in production at one time through a series of crosscuts and raises.

From the haulage drifts, crosscuts would be driven to intersect the bottom of the limb of the saddle at approximately 100 m intervals along strike. From the crosscut, an alimak or “open” raise would be driven up to provide access to the saddles for that level (2-4 saddles depending on the location). This raise would be used as an orepass and/or mill hole to deliver production muck to the haulage level below.

A stockpile will be built for about 1 month’s mill supply adjacent to the Jaw crusher building. There should also be a low grade stockpile once the mine can steadily supply 300 tonnes per day mineralized rock to the mill. The mill should be tuned up on low grade development muck, but once the mill is running smoothly, low grade should be stockpiled separately and processed at the end of the mine life.

From the stockpile, mineralized rock is first crushed to about 12mm by a jaw crusher and cone crusher. Crushed mineralized rock is then sent to a fine mineralized rock bin and on to a grinding section. Vibrating screens are used to separate feed streams and a series of conveyors deliver coarse feed to the various units. After grinding, cyclones are used to separate the feed streams, with coarse material now going to the gravity separation section and finer material through the flotation circuit.

Recovery of the gold is dependent upon grind size; however, as fine material has more surface area, a finer grind means additional reagents must be used in the flotation process as the surface area increases.

Prior to going through the jaw crusher, the mineralized rock passes through a grizzly with bars spaced at 250 mm. Any oversize blocks are set aside for eventual breakup using a hydraulic hammer.

The mineralized rock is crushed in a jaw crusher, then on to a cone crusher. From the cone, material goes over a vibrating screen. Oversize is sent back to the cone while undersize goes to the grinding mill where water is added.

Gravity and flotation are used at Dufferin to recover a doré brick and a flotation concentrate from the mill feed.

Ressources Appalaches upgraded the plant to process 300 tonnes per 24 hour day before and during the processing of approximately 18,000 tonnes of mainly low grade muck from underground.

A stockpile will be built for about 1 month’s mill supply adjacent to the Jaw crusher building. There should also be a low grade stockpile once the mine can steadily supply 300 tonnes per day mineralized rock to the mill. The mill should be tuned up on low grade development muck, but once the mill is running smoothly, low grade should be stockpiled separately and processed at the end of the mine life.

From the stockpile, mineralized rock is first crushed to about 12mm by a jaw crusher and cone crusher. Crushed mineralized rock is then sent to a fine mineralized rock bin and on to a grinding section. Vibrating screens are used to separate feed streams and a series of conveyors deliver coarse feed to the various units. After grinding, cyclones are used to separate the feed streams, with coarse material now going to the gravity separation section and finer material through the flotation circuit.

Recovery of the gold is dependent upon grind size; however, as fine material has more surface area, a finer grind means additional reagents must be used in the flotation process as the surface area increases.

Prior to going through the jaw crusher, the mineralized rock passes through a grizzly with bars spaced at 250 mm. Any oversize blocks are set aside for eventual breakup using a hydraulic hammer.

The mineralized rock is crushed in a jaw crusher, then on to a cone crusher. From the cone, material goes over a vibrating screen. Oversize is sent back to the cone while undersize goes to the grinding mill where water is added.

After grinding, the material passes through a cyclone which separates the course material for processing through the gravity circuit. A Falcon concentrator is used to make a concentrate which then passes over a table where high grade gold is collected and stored in the vault for later melting into a doré brick.

Reject from the table goes back to the Falcon concentrator for reprocessing. Tails from the Falcon concentrator and the undersize from the cyclone are directed to the flotation circuit. Tailings from the flotation circuit are sent to the tailings pond. The concentrate from the flotation circuit is thickened, dewatered and bagged in one tonne tote bags for shipment to a smelter.

Saleable gold products from the site are doré bricks and flotation concentrate. About 85% of the recovered gold will be in the form of doré bricks which will assay about 80% gold and 20% silver. The remaining 15% of the gold that is recovered will be in a flotation concentrate assaying between 30 grams/tonne and 300 grams/tonne.