The graphite rich paragneiss is present at surface over 8.7 kilometers with an average width of 300m and up to 1,000m wide. The graphite rich paragneiss is hosted within the Archean Kénéma Man domain, consisting with granulitic and migmatitic gneiss with subordinate granitoides and relic supracrustal belts, which are metamorphosed to granulitic facies.

The Lola Graphite occurrence is a natural flake occurrence within a paragneiss.

The graphite mineralisation is located within the strongly sheared paragneiss, the shearing mechanism may have played a role as containing and constraining the graphite mineralisation within the paragneiss.

The first 20m or so of the deposit is well weathered (lateralized) freeing graphite flakes from the silicate gangue and allowing for easy grinding with an optimal recovery of large and jumbo flakes. Graphite mineralisation continues at depth within the non-weathered paragneiss.

Graphite mineralization is well exposed at surface on its entire strike length with sample grades ranging from trace to up to 20% of large flakes and often seen in higher concentration agglomerates.

The mining method selected for the Project is a conventional open pit operation with articulated 41- tonnes haul trucks, hydraulic excavators and wheel loaders with 5 m³ capacity.

The Project consists of three (3) separated mineralized areas: North, Central, and South. The North and Central areas have been separated by two areas each one to avoid flooding zones. A production schedule is based on a 29-year life of mine with includes 42.06 Mt of proven and provable mineral reserves at an average grade of 4.17% Cg.

Over the life of the mine, an average of 1.4 Mt per year (3,960 t/d) of ore will be mined from the open pit and hauled to the run of mine (ROM) pad. Given the constraints on the comminution circuit of the process plant, the blend between oxide material and fresh rock material contained in the ROM delivered to the process plant has been set at a maximum of 45% of fresh rock.

The mine will operate year-round, seven (7) days per week, twenty (20) hours per day (2 shifts, 10 hours each). Since the mill will operate seven (7) days per week, a run of mine stockpile will be maintained to provide a constant supply of feed to the crusher and maintain the maximum proportion (45%) of fresh rock. During the days when the mine is not operating (for technical or weather reasons), the crusher will be fed by the front-end loader from the stockpile. The mine fleet requirements and manpower are based on this work schedule.

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The Run of Mine (ROM) mineralized material will be deposited directly into a feed hopper using a front-end loader. From the hopper, an apron plate feeder conveys the material to the primary mineral sizer where it will crush the material by means of the rotating toothed rolls reducing the material from a maximum of 24” (600 mm) to 8” (200 mm).

The crushed material from the primary mineral sizer is then conveyed past a self-cleaning permanent magnet and finally, distributed into the secondary mineral sizer where the material will be further reduced from 8” (200 mm) down to minus 2” (50 mm). The discharge from the secondary mineral sizer will deposit onto a discharge conveyor and the material will be transported via conveyors to a crushed ore stockpile.

To lower capital expenditure, the crushed material from the stockpile will not be reclaimed by feeders and a main conveyor located under the stockpile in a concrete reclaim tunnel which would also require the emergency escape tunnel. The crushed material will be reclaimed from the stockpile and deposited directly into a crushed ore hopper using a front-end loader. A feeder, located under the hopper, will feed the crushed material onto belt conveyors to feed the drum scrubber in the concentrator.

Rotary drum scrubber operates in an open circuit with a single-deck vibrating screen. The -1 mm screen undersize material is directed to desliming circuit prior to rougher flotation. The +1 mm oversize material reports to the ball mill circuit.

The ball mill operates in a closed circuit with the drum scrubber’s discharge single-deck vibrating screen to produce a product passing 1 mm which will be directed to desliming circuit prior to rougher flotation.

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