Thunderbox is a mesothermal lode gold deposit located at the southern end of the Yandal greenstone belt in an area where several major shear zones converge and join with the Perseverance Fault. The shear zone dips at 30° to 60° WSW, with the exception in the vicinity of the mineralisation, where the shear is vertical to steeply dipping. Mineralisation is hosted by strongly deformed, silicified and carbonate altered albite-quartz porphyry in the hangingwall of the shear zone. The shear juxtaposes foliated basalts and intrusive porphyries in the hangingwall against sedimentary rocks in the footwall. The zone of shearing is over 200m wide. An ultramafic unit occurs within the shear, in the footwall of the deposit and is attenuated along the shear. The main gold related hydrothermal alteration assemblage comprises quartz-ankerite arsenopyritepyrrhotite-galena and gold. This assemblage has been overprinted by a retrograde chlorite-epidote-white mica-biotite-quartz and pyrite assemblage. Syn-mineralisation veins have a continuum of vein textures ranging from laminated to pseudo-breccias.

Thunderbox mineralisation extends from 6879000mN to 6881000mN, 304000mE to 304400mE and 500 meters below surface. The Thunderbox shear generally strike NNW and dips 60° towards the WSW. In the vicinity of the strongest gold mineralisation the shear is vertical to steeply west dipping. The shear and mineralisation is offset across a series of dextral, NE trending faults.

The Thunderbox gold deposit consists of free milling gold which occurs as inclusions within, and at the rims of arsenopyrite crystals, and as free gold clusters within quartz-carbonate veins.

The Thunderbox deposit is amenable to mining by both open pit and underground methods. The deposit has successfully been mined by open pit in the past between 2002 and 2007. Saracen is currently mining the A-Zone pit at Thunderbox using Open pit methods.

The Thunderbox mill employs a conventional crushing, grinding and CIL leaching process to extract the gold. The mill operated successfully between 2002 and 2007, processing in excess of 9Mt of ore. The conventional plant displayed excellent performance with gold recoveries between 93.4 to 96.6 % over the life of the mine. Importantly it should be noted that no reduction in recoveries were observed when the ore changed from oxide-transitional into fresh rock.