The Okvau Deposit is largely hosted in a Cretaceous diorite intrusion emplaced within an upper Triassic metasedimentary host rock package. Gold mineralisation is contained in a north-east trending fracture set in a narrow off-shoot or apophyses from a larger diorite intrusion however extends beyond the diorite contact into the metasediments.

The Okvau deposit is interpreted as an “intrusion-related gold system”. It is hosted mostly in Cretaceous age diorite and, to a lesser extent, in surrounding hornfels (metamorphosed, fine-grained clastic sediments). Gold mineralization is hosted within a complex array of sulphide veins, which strike northeast to east-west, and dip at shallow to moderately steep angles, to the south and southeast. Mineralisation is structurally controlled and mostly confined to the diorite. The highest grade intersections generally occur at the diorite-hornfels contact.

Gold mineralisation is concentrated along a network of brittle/ductile shears and arsenopyrite-rich sulphide veins. The mineralized shears typically comprise 10 to 50 metre wide core of strongly altered, fractured, and/or sheared rock locally with a weak planar fabric, surrounded by 0.5 to 2 metre wide less intensely altered halos which retain relict diorite texture. Variably deformed pyrrhotite, arsenopyrite and/or pyrite-rich layers up to 10 metres wide also commonly occur in the core of the shears.

The greater width of the alteration haloes around the she ........

The Okvau Deposit will be mined via conventional open pit mining methods from a single pit which will be mined in stages to maintain a relatively constant mining rate whilst providing adequate ore for processing at consistent ore grades. Mining will be undertaken by drilling and blasting ore and waste with load and haul using mining contractors. The proposed core mining fleet is made up of 120 tonne class excavators and 91 tonne class mine haul trucks.

The Okvau process plant will have a nameplate throughput of 2.0Mtpa, with an availability of 8,000 hours per annum (91.3%) and a nominal capacity of 250 tonnes per hour (‘tph’). The process plant will be located to the east of the open pit and adjacent to the TSF.

The process design broadly comprises of the following:
- Primary Jaw Crushing
- Crushed Ore Stockpile and Reclaim System
- SAG Milling and Classification with Pebble Crushing
- Sulphide Flotation
- Flotation Concentrate Thickening
- Fine Grinding of Concentrate Through a Regrind Mill
- Pre-Leach Oxygenation of Concentrate
- Pre-Leach Thickening
- Leaching and Absorption of both Concentrate and Flotation Tailings
- Elution and Electrowinning
- Cyanide Detoxification of Tails.

Ore will be placed in various stockpiles on the ROM pad adjacent to the process plant and will be fed by front end loader with a blending strategy to maximise predicted gold rec ........