The Madaouela deposits exhibit classic characteristics of uranium sandstone deposits common the world over (Cuney and Kyser, 2009).

Sandstone-hosted uranium deposits are defined as epigenetic concentrations of uranium minerals occurring as impregnations and replacements primarily in fluvial, lacustrine, and deltaic sandstone formations. They occur in permeable medium- to coarse grained sandstone, usually deposited in continental fluvial or marginal marine sedimentary environments. Impermeable shale or mudstone are inter-bedded in the sedimentary sequence, and often occur above and below the mineralization.

The source of uranium is usually igneous or volcanic rocks (alkaline tuffs, granitic intrusion) either in close proximity to or inter-bedded with the sandstone units. The uranium mineralization typically precipitates from oxidizing fluids, under reducing conditions caused by a variety of reducing agents including: carbonaceous material (detrital plant debris and amorphous humate), sulfides accompanying organic matter decay, hydrocarbon, and inter-bedded mafic volcanic rock with abundant ferro-magnesian minerals. The reducing agent for Madaouela is most likely in-situ organic material (lignite) or hydrocarbons transported along major fault.

The main primary uranium minerals are uraninite and coffinite with minor secondary uranium minerals being noted in exposed (weathered) mineralization.

The mineralogy of uranium in the deposit is dominated by pitchblende and coffinite. The overall paragenesis could be divided in three stages: (1) early sulfides; (2) uranium on organic matter such as wood fragments; (3) carbonates and barite.

GoviEx drilling has established connections between the mineralization at Marianne and Marilyn, once separate deposits. The Marianne Marilyn deposit is a nearly flat tabular body of mineralization that spans approximately 5 km (N70E direction) by 2 km across in plan, and the deposit thickness varies from 0.2 to over 2 m (average thickness of about 1 m).

Drilling in the southern part of Madaouela I has thus far defined three individual pods of mineralization in the same stratigraphic setting and with similar grade, depth (100 m to 140 m), and thickness of mineralization to that at Marianne-Marilyn. The main body of the largest of the three pods of mineralization, Madaouela south northeast (“MSNE”), extends approximately 4 km east-west, by approximately 6 km north-south.

The mineralization occurs at depths from about 30 m on the eastern end of Marilyn, to approximately 60 m in depth in the middle of the Marianne-Marilyn deposit, up to 120 m in depths on the west extensions of Marianne; below the relatively flat topographic surface. The stratigraphy gently dips to the southwest, with local minor domal features. Mineralization at MSNE is similar in depth (about 100 to 140 m deep), grade, and thickness, although not yet drill-defined as large as the Marianne-Marilyn deposit is in plan.

The MSNE deposit occurs to the south of Marianne-Marilyn and is approximately 140 m deep. It occurs on the same redox front as Marianne-Marilyn (Figure 7-23) and the deposit is approximately 2.7 km long and 2.3 km.

Maryvonne deposit is located to the north of MSNE deposit and is approximately 100 m deep. The length of the deposit is 1.2 km and the width is 0.75 km

Miriam deposit is situated 8 km to the south of MSNE deposit and is dipping from 65 m to 120 m deep. The deposit is 2.4 km in length and 0.8 km wide.

Mining schedules have been developed including open pit mining at the Miriam deposit, and room and pillar mining with decline access at a combined 4,020 tonnes per day production rate from Marianne-Marilyn, MSNE and Maryvonne deposits.

The Madaouela deposits being considered for mining comprise four distinct deposits:
• Marianne-Marilyn (M&M);
• MSNE;
• Maryvonne; and
• Miriam.

Miriam is to be mined using open pit methods due to the larger mineralised thicknesses and proximity to the surface.

The engineered final pit design for the Miriam deposit is based on the selected pit shell. Where possible, ramps are located where practical within the constraints of the location of the waste dumps and run of mine (“RoM”) stockpile.

The final Miriam pit design is approximately 1,400 km long, 550 m wide and reaches a maximum depth of 120 m.

The open pit life of mine (“LoM”) plan is based on the final pit design and three pushback pit shells. The key scheduling parameters were as follows:
• Plant feed target of 1,400 ktpa;
• Limit total material movement ex-pit to 19.5 Mtpa;
• Two years of pre-production waste stripping;

Marianne-Marilyn (M&M) and MSNE-Maryvonne deposits are mined by room and pillar mining methods.

Due to the shallow depth of mineralisation, which is typically around 100 metres below the surface for the Madaouela deposits, decline access has been adopted.

There are two basic options for underground excavation; drill and blast or mechanical excavation.

The underground Life of mine plan (LoMP) combines production from Marianne-Marilyn and MSNE-Maryvonne into a single schedule. The schedule assumes one development crew in operation at any time. All panel and infrastructure development in Marianne-Marilyn is scheduled to be completed before the decline access to MSNE-Maryvonne commences. The underground LoMP is independent of the proposed open pit mining at Miriam.

The base case mineral processing design is crushing, radiometric sorting, ablation and two-stage tank acid leaching, solvent extraction, with dry stack tailings. Utilizing Cyanex 600 resin allows both uranium oxide yellow cake and by-product molybdenum oxide to be produced as commercial products with acceptable quality for sale.

Mined ore from Marianne and Marilyn is crushed underground (80 % < 306 mm) prior to transport and is received on surface at the transfer point at the discharge of the inclined conveyor from the mining operation. From here material is transferred to the ROM stockpile via the stockpile feed conveyor. Facility is also provided to receive primary crushed ore from other mining operations or from static stockpiles around the plant area into a feed receipt bin by road truck or front end loader (“FEL”).

Feed preparation effectively consists of two stage crushing with intermediate screening. Ore from the stockpile is reclaimed by 3 apron feeders an ........