The Fosterville goldfield is located within the eastern Bendigo Zone, which is bound by the Avoca Fault to the west and the Heathcote Fault Zone to the east. The Bendigo Zone contains Ordovician turbidite sequences of sub-greenschist to greenschist metamorphic grade.

The Fosterville goldfield is hosted by Lower Ordovician Lancefieldian (approximately 486 to 488Ma) turbidites within the Ordovician Castlemaine Group rocks. This sequence has been weakly metamorphosed to sub-greenschist facies and folded into a set of upright, northnorthwest trending and shallowly south plunging open to closed folds. The folding resulted in the formation of a series of bedding parallel laminated quartz veins and bedding parallel thrust faults.

Gold and associated sulphide mineralization at the Fosterville mine is controlled by late brittle faulting and fracturing. These brittle faults are generally steeply west-dipping, reverse faults with a series of moderately west-dipping, reverse splay faults formed in the footwall of the main faults. There are also less abundant, moderately southeast and southwest-dipping faults which govern high grade visible gold mineralization along the Eagle and Swan zones. Two main styles of gold mineralization occur at the Fosterville mine; a sediment-hosted sub-micron refractory style where gold is locked in disseminated arsenopyrite and pyrite crystals which form selvages to quartz-carbonate vein stockworks throughout the nine kilometre long fa ........

Mining activities at Fosterville are currently focused on the Central, Phoenix and Harrier underground ore zones. All areas are extracted using open stoping techniques with the application of Cemented Rock Fill where practical. Selection of the specific mining method within the open stoping regime is based upon previous experience at the Fosterville mine and expectations of ore zone geometry and geotechnical conditions. In 2020, work on a twin exploration drive, capable of supporting production activities, commenced to connect the existing Fosterville mine to Robbin’s Hill, which is expected to be established as a second mining operation to feed the Fosterville mill over the next few years. The twin drive had advanced over 7,800 metres as at December 31, 2021 and remains on track for completion in mid-2022.

Underground mining is conducted using a conventional fleet including jumbos, production drills, loaders, trucks and ancillary equipment. Open Cut mining (when required) is conducted using a conventional fleet including excavators and trucks with a contract mining fleet and workforce.

The Phoenix to 4240mRL, Harrier below 4500mRL, Central and Robin orebodies are accessed from a footwall decline position while the Phoenix below 4240mRL and Harrier orebody above 4500mRL are accessed from the hangingwall. All areas are planned to be extracted using open stoping techniques, primarily in a top down sequence, with the application of cemented rock fill or pas ........

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