The principal model for gold mineralization at the Agi Dagi and Çamyurt Gold Properties is a highsulphidation, epithermal gold deposit. Premier examples of this kind of deposit in the world are Yanacocha, Pierina and Alto Chicama in Peru. Most high sulphidation deposits are large, low-grade bulk-tonnage systems (Yanacocha), though vein-hosted high-sulphidation deposits also occur (El Indio).

At Agi Dagi, gold mineralization is associated with felsic volcanic rocks of Miocene age and a northeast trending silica cap rock about 4 km x 2 km in extent which forms a topographic high 700 to 900 m in relief. The gold mineralization is disseminated and associated with intensely silicified, vuggy, oxidized and brecciated rocks hosted in volcanic felsic to intermediate tuffs and occasionally phreatic breccia bodies. Hydrothermal-type breccias (crackle, jigsaw, hydrothermal) are most common in this siliceous alteration. Pyrite is by far the most abundant primary sulphide mineral associated with gold. Trace to minor amounts of enargite, covellite, galena and molybdenum are present locally.

Five main zones of gold mineralization are present at Agi Dagi: the Baba, Ayi Tepe, Fire Tower, Ihlamur and Deli Zones. The most important ones in term of resources and intensity of drilling are Baba and Deli. The Baba, Fire Tower and Deli zones are on the east side of the mountain top along a silicified dacite basin – phreatic breccia northeast-southwest trend. Gold mineralization is continuous between the south of Baba and Deli over 4 km although there are zones where gold mineralization is too deep or too low-grade to be considered for mining. The Ayi Tepe and Ihlamur zones are on a parallel trend the west side of the mountain. Mineralization does not appear as continuous in the Ayi Tepe – Ihlamur trend but it has been less recognized by drilling.

The north of the Baba hill is composed of phreatic breccias cutting through andesites and a half kilometre wide northeast trending basin composed of dacite flow and tuff. To the west, the Ayi Tepe hill is made up of the same geological assemblage, a dacite tuff basin over andesites cut by phreatic breccia pipes. These two basins are elongated towards the northeast and may be followed all across the Agi Mountain to Deli through Fire Tower.

Most of the gold mineralization in the Baba zone is spatially associated with the matrix-supported heterolithic phreatic breccia body cutting low-dipping dacite tuffs overlying andesite flows. Silicification (often vuggy and/or crackle-brecciated) appears to be related to this breccia and the dacite. The attitude of the gold mineralization as interpreted from drilling is dictated by the shape of the breccia body, which extends beyond in the dacite tuffs. Some lower grade mineralization also occurs in oxidized porphyritic andesite adjacent to the phreatic breccia. The bulk of gold mineralization occurs within the oxide zone.

The Deli hill is composed of a phreatic breccia pipe cutting through andesites and a kilometre wide basin composed of dacite flow and tuff. To the west in the Ihlamur extension, the northern edge of another basin of dacite is present. These two basins are elongated towards the southwest and may be discontinuously followed across the Agi Mountain to Baba and Ayi Tepe.

In Baba, the phreatic breccias and dacites are mostly silicified while alteration quickly falls to argillic in the underlying andesites. Vuggy silica appears coherent with a higher and a lower zone. Higher-grade gold mineralization is found in the upper part of the silicified zone while a lowgrade gold mineralization is common towards the bottom of the silica zone, coinciding with the bottom of the dacite or with phreatic breccia which is found at the dacite-andesite contact.

The Deli geochemical signature is that of a classical high-sulphidation epithermal model with elevated Au-Pb-As-Ag. The Deli zone is an intensely silicified package of dacite volcaniclastics overlying porphyritic andesites being intruded by elongated heterolithic phreatic/phreatomagmatic breccia bodies. The corridors (often faults) for the breccias in turn become fluid pathways where gold bearing fluid rises along sub-vertical feeder structures, flattening near surface and intersects crackleto jigsaw-brecciated and/or vuggy silica zones, and deposits gold within this rock package, much of which is subsequently oxidized.

At Agi Dagi, breccias are important as mineralization controls. Two main breccia families are present. These are the phreatic breccias and the hydrothermal breccias. But there are additionally other types of breccias.

Phreatic breccias include also phreatomagmatic breccias. These breccias are predominantly heterolithic, with a matrix of mostly rock flour (the phreatomagmatic variety also have a magmatic component but are less abundant than the phreatic breccia and were only identified at Deli). They are generally matrix-supported. These breccias have a mushroom shape with sub-horizontal to lowdipping near surface extensions away from the feeder pipe. The breccias and particularly their contacts with host rocks are important for providing pathways for later hydrothermal fluids. The phreatic brecciation mostly pre-dates mineralization.

The crackle and jigsaw breccias relate to stress and are a part of the continuum that ranges from fracture zones through intense fracturing (crackle), fracture with an element of clast rotation (jigsaw) and progress through to hydrothermal breccias which may even be matrix(cement)-supported and heterolithic depending on the amount and force of injection of the hydrothermal fluids.

Hydrothermal breccias are cemented by minerals that are derived from hydrothermal fluids (i.e. quartz-alunite-pyrophyllite-pyrite etc). Hydrothermal breccias are often directly related to mineralization, with higher grades coinciding with those whose matrix is more pyrite (or Fe-oxide) - rich. Hydrothermal brecciation overlaps and includes all other categories of breccias.

The Baba and Deli deposits will be mined by conventional open pit hard rock mining methods. Alamos Gold plans to utilize a contract mining company to move the ore and waste from the pits. The Mineral Reserve is the total of the Proven and Probable material that is planned for processing within the mine plan. Oxide and transition ore at Baba and Deli will be crushed, agglomerated, conveyed and stacked on to a heap leach pad where it will be cyanide leached for the recovery of gold and silver. Two primary crusher locations are planned; one crusher near the Baba pit and one crusher near the Deli pit. Primary crushed ore will be conveyed to a central secondary crushing circuit before agglomerating and stacking.

The Agi Dagi Project has been designed as a 30,000 t/d heap leach operation utilizing a multiple-lift, single-use leach pad. The ore will be processed by two primary crushing circuits and open circuit secondary crushing. The secondary crushed ore will be agglomerated, stacked on the heap leach pad by conveyor stacking and processed by heap leaching methods.

Based on various metallurgical test programs and design criteria the process flowsheet was developed. It employs conventional crushing, agglomeration, heap leach and adsorption/desorption recovery processes.

ROM will be transported from two separate pits, Baba and Deli, using 50 tonne haul trucks. Each pit will have a dedicated primary crushing circuit. Ore at nominally minus 800 mm (P100 will be 800 mm and P80 will be 64.7 mm), will be fed into the dump hoppers that discharges using apron feeders at a rate of 833 dry metric tonnes per hour (dmt/h) per primary crusher. Each dump hopper area will be equipped with water and compressed air for dust suppression. The apron feeders will discharge into a vibratory grizzly that separates the ore at 150 mm. Undersize from the vibratory grizzly discharges onto the primary crushing discharge conveyor. Oversize from the vibratory grizzly will be fed to the primary crusher. A rock breaker will be installed for breaking the occasional rocks larger than 800 mm.

Crushed ore from the overland conveyor will be split into two separate streams, using a manual slide gate, at a rate of 833 dmt/h each. The slide gate will discharge onto two separate agglomeration feed conveyors. Portland cement, at a rate of 2.5 kg/t of ore, will be added onto the agglomeration feed conveyors from their respective cement silos prior to discharging into the agglomeration drums. Barren solution will be added to the agglomeration drums to bring the ore moisture content to 7.5%. The agglomerated ore is discharged onto the agglomerator collection conveyor where concentrated sodium cyanide solution is dripped onto the ore at a rate of 2 L/hr using the leach activator pump. The agglomerator collection conveyor discharges onto the heap feed conveyor.

1,666 dmt/h of agglomerated ore from the heap feed conveyor is transferred to the heap leach pad through a series of conveyors.

The heap leach will be built by placing the ore in 10 m lifts using the radial stacker.

The leach pad will be built using multiple-lifts with a capacity for approximately 70 M dry tonnes. The leach cycle is designed for 90 days of ore leaching, where a dilute sodium cyanide solution is applied using drip emitters and sprinklers at a rate of 10 L/h/m2.

Barren solution from the adsorption-desorption-recovery (ADR) circuit will be pumped into the barren solution tank which will have an approximate 80 minute residence time of 1,765 m3 . Barren solution will be pumped onto the heap, using two pairs, four total, of horizontal centrifugal pumps in series, at a rate of 1,688 m3 /h. An additional set of standby pumps are included for an overall total of six pumps. Concentrated sodium cyanide solution will be added to the barren solution tank and antiscalant will be added to the suction side of the barren solution pumps using metering pumps.

As the cyanide solution will percolate through the ore, it will leach the gold, silver and any cyanide soluble metals. The pregnant solution will be collected at base of the heap pad on the geomembrane liner. Drainage pipes throughout the heap pad will drain the pregnant solution into the pregnant solution sump at a rate of 1,630 m3 /h. The sump liner drain pump discharges into the pregnant solution pond.

The adsorption circuit will process 1,630 m3 /h of pregnant solution from the pregnant solution pond. The adsorption circuit will consist of two identical adsorption trains that will contain five carbon columns each. A single adsorption column will hold 10.6 t of 6 x 12 mesh activated carbon. Each column will be equipped with internal diaphragms with bubble caps.

The pregnant solution in the head tank gravity feeds the first carbon column. The solution will flow from column to column by gravity and the flowrate will be controlled by dart valves. Solution leaving the fifth column will be discharged over a carbon safety screen and collected in the barren surge tank.

Carbon will be transferred from tank to tank by use of a single carbon transfer pump. Carbon will be pumped countercurrent to the flow of the pregnant solution and will be discharged from the first column. Loaded carbon will be transferred in 5.3 t batches to the loaded carbon holding tank.

The carbon desorption circuit will consist of two (2) mild steel vessels sized to hold 5.3 t of loaded carbon each. A 5.3 t of loaded carbon is pumped from the carbon holding tank to one of the strip columns. The remaining carbon from the absorption circuit will be pumped into the other strip column.

Barren solution from the electrowinning cell, combined with sodium hydroxide and cyanide solution, will be pumped through a plate and frame heat exchanger. Additional sodium hydroxide and cyanide solution will be supplied from the reagent area. The solution will be further heated to 143°C and 297 kPa by an electric boiler circulating through a primary heat exchanger, heat recovery exchanger, and a cooling heat exchanger. The heated solution will then be fed through the bed of loaded carbon in the strip vessels where the metals will be extracted into solution.

Pregnant solution will be pumped from strip column through the cooling heat exchanger and into the electrowinning feed tank. The solution from the feed tank will be pumped into four, 100 ft3 (2.83 m3), high efficiency sludge type electrowinning cells. Gold, silver and other metals will potentially be plated onto stainless steel cathodes.

Several times a week, a set of cathodes will be pressure washed to remove the metal containing sludge. The sludge will then pumped to the sludge press for dewatering. The filter cake will contain primarily gold and silver but copper and mercury will be present as well.

Barren solution is recycled back to the strip vessel, with sodium hydroxide and cyanide make-up, for further stripping. After approximately every third strip cycle, the strip solution will be discharged to the barren solution tank and new strip solution will be prepared.

Once the carbon is stripped, the carbon will be pumped to the acid wash circuit. The acid wash circuit will also be piped in such a fashion that acid washing can preformed prior to stripping as well.

The carbon regeneration circuit will receive every third batch of carbon from the acid wash circuit. The acid wash carbon will be pumped over a dewatering screen to remove water and carbon fines prior to being discharged into the regeneration feed hopper. The feed hoppers will be sized to accommodate one and a half batches of carbon. Dewatered carbon will be screw fed into an electric kiln at a nominal rate of 150 kg/h. The kiln will be capable of being fed 6 X 20 mesh carbon at a rate between 125 to 200 kg/h and will operate at a temperature between 550 to 600°C with a maximum temperature of 650°C.