The host rocks at Rupice comprises Middle Triassic limestone, dolostone, calcareous and dolomitic marl, and a range of mostly fine-grained siliciclastic rocks including cherty mudstone, mudstone, siltstone and fine grained sandstone. The main mineralised horizon is a brecciated dolomitic unit that dips at around 50o to the northeast and has been preferentially mineralised with base, precious and transitional metals. The Triassic sequence and has been intensely deformed both by early stage ductile shearing and late stage brittle faulting.

The Rupice polymetallic mineralisation consists of sphalerite, galena, barite and chalcopyrite with gold, silver, tetrahedrite, boulangerite and bournonite, with pyrite. The majority of the high-grade mineralisation is hosted within the brecciated dolomitic unit, which is offset and cut by northwest striking, westerly dipping syn-post mineral faulting. This faulting displaces the mineralised body up to 20 metres in places. Thickening of the central portion of the orebody occurs where these faults flexure and deform. Mineralised widths up to 65 metres true thickness are seen in the central portion of the orebody.

To date, the massive sulphide mineralisation at Rupice has a defined strike length of 650 metres, with an average true-width thickness of around 20 metres. However, mineralisation at Rupice still remains open towards the north and down-dip to the south.

The Vares Silver Project hosts two Mineral Resources; the Rupice underground deposit (“Rupice”) and the Veovaca open pit deposit (“Veovaca”). Veovaca open pit removed from scope of study.

Access to the underground workings will be via two declines developed from the surface accessing the orebody via further development of ramps, level access drives and footwall drives. All the development access will be suitable for trackless equipment.

The underground stoping will be divided into two main mining method zones:
• Transverse Longhole Open Stoping zone (“TLOS”)
• Longitudinal Longhole Open Stoping zone (“LLOS”)

The TLOS zone will be below the 1,065 level and the LLOS zone will be from and above the 1,065 level. TLOS will be used in areas where the ore zone thickness is greater than 20 m. Stopes will be oriented in a transverse fashion with stope access drives orientated from the footwall towards the hanging wall, perpendicular to the general orebody strike. LLOS will be used in areas where the ore zone thickness is less than 20 m. Stopes will be oriented in a longitudinal fashion along a strike drive.

Primary stopes represent the initial phase of production mining within the TLOS section of the mine. Primary stopes are mined in a “chequerboard” fashion on each level, with temporary pillars left between the primary stopes. The primary stopes are then backfilled with either Cemented Aggregate Fill or Paste Aggregate Fill, or a ........

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The 2021 DFS process design is based on treating ore from the Rupice Underground Mine through a sequential flotation process to produce a silver-lead concentrate and a zinc concentrate.

The Vares Silver Project has two processing sites; the Rupice Surface Infrastructure site and the Vares Processing Plant site. The Rupice Surface Infrastructure site, which is a greenfield site, is located above the Rupice Underground Mine site.

ROM hauled to surface from the Rupice Underground Mine will be deposited onto one of three surface stockpiles based on grade, from which the ore will be reclaimed, by a front-end loader, (and trucks, depending on distance of the stockpile from the crusher feed bin) into the three-stage crushing plant feed bin. Waste rock will be processed through the same crushing plant to produce the required aggregate materials used for the backfill plant. The ore and waste rock will be processed on a batch basis through the crushing plant and the plant ........