Mineralization at the Banfora Gold Project is structurally controlled and is widely associated with hematite, iron carbonate, sericite, pyrite and locally, with albitic alteration. Higher gold grades are commonly associated with stylolitic laminated quartz veins or pyrite veinlets. Coarse-grained gold is found in fractures within pyrite veins or in quartz-carbonate vein selvages. Mineralization is predominantly of a lode-style gold type, associated with discrete structures. The mineralization is interpreted to have formed from the same mineralizing system, with variations in style reflecting the difference in local lithological and structural settings.

NOGBELE DEPOSIT
Nogbele mineralization is primarily hosted in a series of generally planar, moderately to steeply dipping, northeast, and east striking fault zones. The most significant of these are throughgoing faults with strike lengths up to one kilometre, defined down to 250 m or more by drilling at depth, and with a faulted and mineralized envelope up to 30 m wide, but more typically three to ten metres wide. These through-going fault zones are typically cored by narrow (0.1 m to 3.0 m), high grade, zone-parallel quartz veins with similar or somewhat lesser continuity to that of the host faults. Along zones of intersection and/or deflection, such veins may tend to pinch, blow out, or bifurcate temporarily into en-echelon sets.

FOURKOURA DEPOSIT
A broad albite, hematite, and sericite alteration zone within the quartz gabbro surrounds the mineralization at Fourkoura. The early alteration forms quite significant domains within the host intrusive and is interpreted to represent an earlier pre-mineralizing event as the mineralization overprints this early alteration. The gold mineralization is associated with pervasive iron carbonate and hematite alteration with minor disseminated pyrite and milky quartz veins. In the north of the prospect, the mineralization occurs within a narrow deformed granitoid dyke with sheared margins. In the southern part of the prospect, mineralization is associated with discrete shears within the quartz gabbro, and with minor quartz veining.

STINGER DEPOSIT
Two related styles of alteration occur widely at the Stinger deposit:
1. Pale brownish-cream-apple green coloured alteration that is rich in ankeritic carbonate with lesser sericite and widespread trace amounts of disseminated pyrite.
2. Pale to cream coloured alteration probably rich in albite, perhaps with lesser quartz and sporadic trace amounts of disseminated pyrite.

Both alteration assemblages are locally associated with, or include hematite. The carbonate- rich assemblage affects all rock types, whereas the albite-rich assemblage is largely confined to the granitoid rocks. Where disseminated pyrite is present, but no infill quartz or carbonate veining, both alteration assemblages correspond with gold grades locally up to 1 g/t Au, although more generally in the range 0.1 g/t Au to 0.5 g/t Au.

Higher gold grades in excess of 1 g/t Au are commonly associated with milky quartz veins. Veins vary in thickness from less than one centimetre to approximately 30 cm. Pyrite is a common but not ubiquitous part of the veins and adjacent alteration halos. Within the veins, pyrite tends to be concentrated along the margins of strongly altered wall rock fragments.

SAMAVOGO DEPOSIT
Mineralization in the southern part of the Samavogo area is associated with brecciated quartz- carbonate-pyrite veining with minor graphite. These veins occur in sheared iron-carbonate altered sediments and volcanics that generally occur within 10 m to 20 m of a granitoid contact. Pervasively altered one metre to 10 m thick granitoid dykes are commonly spatially associated with the mineralized zone. Some of the higher-grade gold lodes in this area are associated with disseminated pyrite mineralization with the iron-carbonate altered rocks where veining is absent. The granitoid contact and mineralized zone both dip approximately 30° to the southeast. Several cross cutting faults split the deposit into four faulted blocks. Visible gold is common in brecciated veins in outcrop and float.

In the north of the area, the mineralization steps approximately 150 m to the north and is mainly associated with brittle veining along the contact of granitoid dykes. Mineralization is also associated with quartz-carbonate-pyrite mineral assemblages. Several discrete shear zones are evident in the north (fault blocks 2, 3, and 4), occurring approximately 10 m to 20 m apart from each other, however, generally only one lode contains significant gold grades. The strike and dip of the mineralization within fault blocks 2 to 4 has been defined for 2.4 km of strike length.

WGO encompasses open pit mining of multiple pits of variable size over an approximate 15-year timeframe (pre-production and production).

The mining operation is divided into four main regions, Nogbele, Fourkoura, Stinger, and Samavogo. Nogbele is further subdivided into Nogbele Nangolo, Nogbele North Central, and Nogbele South. Within the model areas, the terrain is generally flat with minimal relief. Roads connecting the satellite areas to the main area are generally level.

Material will be drilled and blasted where required, then loaded by backhoe excavators into haul trucks dispatched to the PCA, WRDs, or stockpiles. Various material types are considered in the mine planning and open pit design and there is a significant emphasis on mine sequencing to optimize WGO economics.

The total surface footprint area of all the pit designs is 399.6 ha. The maximum pit depth in each area is as follows:

• Nogbele Nangolo – 93 m
• Nogbele North Central – 145 m
• Nogbele South – 133 m
• Fourkoura – 110 m
• Stinger – 231 m
• Samavogo – 135 m.

Pre-split drill and blast operations are estimated for final pit walls in primary rock.

In general, in-pit haul roads were designed for two-way traffic at a maximum continuous gradient of 10%. In certain instances, the bottom 10 m to 20 m of pits may employ a narrower ramp width suitable for one-way traffic.

Two-way traffic pit wall haul road widths are 12 m wide, which includes provision for a single shoulder berm that is three quarters the height of the truck tires. The operable width is approximately nine metres, which is three times the truck width of approximately three metres. One-way traffic pit wall haul roads are nine metres wide.

In the bottom bench of pit areas, trenches were designed to excavate ore where appropriate. Trenches were excavated to a depth of up to 7.5 m, which is within the working depth reach of the specified excavator.

In larger or elongated pits, multiple haul road alignments were incorporated into the final pit walls to improve mining flexibility and reduce haulage times, which will offset the additional waste stripping required for the relatively narrow haul roads.

All haul roads are to be suitably crowned to allow for efficient drainage of surface water, where operations experience will determine the appropriate level of crowning (typically between 1% and 3%).

In general, development of main haul roads and permanent structures, such as the WRDs, around the open pits assumes a minimum setback of 25 m and 50 m respectively from pit rims.

The process plant design incorporates the following unit process operations:
• Single stage primary crushing with a single toggle jaw crusher to produce a crushed product size of P80 ranging from 100 mm to 140 mm, based on differing weathering types.
• A crushed ore stockpile with a live nominal capacity of 2,000 t.
• SAG and ball milling in closed circuit with a pebble crusher and hydrocyclones (SABC) to produce a P80 grind size of 106 µm.
• Leach and CIL circuit incorporating eight stages, with one stage of leaching without carbon and seven stages with carbon for gold adsorption.
• Split Anglo American Research Laboratory (SAARL) elution circuit, electrowinning, and gold smelting to recover gold from the loaded carbon to produce doré.
• Carbon reactivation utilizing a rotary kiln.
• Tailings thickening to recover and recycle process water and precious metal values from the CIL tailings.
• Tailings pumping to the TSF.

Haul trucks operating directly from the pit will deliver RoM ore to the PCA where they will be direct tipped to the RoM bin or dumped into stockpiles arranged by ore gold grade, oxidation, and lithology. A front end loader (FEL) will be used to reclaim and tram ore from the various stockpiles to the RoM bin.

RoM ore will be loaded into the RoM bin by direct tipping from the mining trucks or by FEL from the stockpiles. A grizzly will be fitted to the RoM bin to protect the downstream equipment from oversize material and will be inclined for easy removal of oversize to minimize stoppages. A rock breaker will be utilized to break oversize rocks on the grizzly or RoM pad.

The grinding circuit will consist of a SAG mill in closed circuit with a pebble crusher and a ball mill in closed circuit with hydrocyclones. Crushed ore will be fed directly to the SAG mill. Pebble crusher product will also be deposited on the SAG mill feed conveyor. Process water will be added to the SAG mill to achieve the required milling pulp density.

The trash screen undersize stream will gravitate to the leaching circuit. The leaching circuit will consist of one leach tank and seven CIL adsorption tanks. The tanks will be interconnected with launders and slurry will flow by gravity through the tank train. Each tank will be fitted with a dual impeller mechanical agitator to ensure uniform mixing. Each CIL tank will also be fitted with a mechanically swept wedge wire intertank screen to retain the carbon. All tanks will be fitted with bypass facilities to allow any tank to be removed from service for agitator or screen maintenance.

Sodium cyanide solution will be metered into the CIL feed distributor box and CIL tanks from a ring main system. CIL air from dedicated medium pressure compressors will be distributed to the CIL section and sparged down the shafts of the CIL agitators to provide oxygen to the leach.

Primary/reactivated carbon will be returned to the circuit at CIL Tank 8 and will be advanced counter current to the slurry flow by pumping slurry and carbon from CIL Tank 8 to CIL Tank 7 and so on using recessed impeller pumps. The intertank screen in CIL Tank 7 will retain the carbon whilst allowing the slurry to flow by gravity back to CIL Tank 8. This counter-current process will be repeated until the carbon eventually reaches CIL Tank 2, the first adsorption tank. A recessed impeller pump will be used to transfer slurry to the loaded carbon recovery screen mounted above the acid wash column in the elution circuit. The carbon will be washed and dewatered on the recovery screen prior to reporting to the acid wash column. The associated slurry and wash water will return to CIL Tank 2.

Slurry from the last CIL tank (CIL tails) will gravitate to the vibrating carbon safety screen to recover any carbon leaking from worn screens or overflowing tanks. Screen underflow will gravitate to the tails thickener. Screen oversize (recovered carbon) will be collected in the fine carbon bin for potential return to the circuit or alternative processing.

Barren carbon returning to the adsorption circuit from the carbon reactivation kiln will be screened on the carbon sizing screen to remove fine carbon. The sized and reactivated carbon will report directly to CIL Tank 8.

The elution and goldroom areas can operate seven days per week, as required, with the majority of loaded carbon preparation and stripping occurring during day shift. The SAARL stripping circuit will be automated and will contain separate acid wash and elution wash columns.

Loaded carbon will be recovered on the loaded carbon recovery screen and directed to the rubber lined acid wash column. Transfer and fill operations will be controlled via the level probe located at the top of the acid wash column and will stop the recovery pump and screen once the level switch is activated. All other aspects of the acid wash and the pumping sequence will be automated.

Acid washing of the carbon will commence after carbon transfer is complete. The acid wash solution, 3% w/w HCl in raw water, will be prepared prior to use and stored in the acid mixing/storage tank.

The loaded carbon will be pre-soaked in the cyanide/caustic solution for 30 minutes to prepare the gold for elution. The carbon will then be eluted by the hot strip solution which will pass out of the circuit to the pregnant solution tank. Outgoing strip solution will pass through the recovery heat exchanger to heat the incoming strip solution. Once a predetermined number of bed volumes (set at 8 to start) have been passed through the elution column a cool down sequence will be initiated, to cool the carbon to a temperature below boiling.

Pregnant solution will be pumped through the electrowinning cell. Direct current will be passed through stainless steel anodes and stainless steel mesh cathodes within the electrowinning cell and electrolytic action will cause gold and silver in solution to plate out on the cathodes. Solution discharging from the electrowinning cells will return by gravity to the pregnant solution tank. Electrowinning will continue until the solution exiting the electrowinning cells is depleted of gold.

The electroplated silver and gold will be removed from the cathodes by washing with high pressure water jets. The resulting sludge will be filtered in a pan filter and the solids dried in an oven. The sludge will then be direct smelted with fluxes in a diesel-fired furnace to produce doré bars. Slag from smelting operations will be returned to the milling circuit. Fume extraction equipment will be provided to remove gases from the electrowinning cells, oven, and barring furnace.

After completion of the elution process, the barren carbon will be transferred from the elution column to the carbon dewatering screen to dewater the carbon prior to entering the feed hopper of the horizontal carbon reactivation kiln. In the kiln feed hopper any residual and interstitial water will be drained from the carbon before it enters the kiln. Kiln off-gases will also be used to dry the carbon prior to entering the kiln.