The Kundana Operation hosts several deposits spatially associated with the Zuleika Shear Zone (‘ZSZ’), a NW/SE trending structure stretching more than 250km, separating the Ora Banda and Coolgardie Domains. Typically, deposits within the ‘ZSZ’ are comprised of narrow, high grade quartz veins, hosted within smaller shear structures formed at the contacts of the Archaean Greenstone stratigraphy’s belonging to the two domains.

Strike extents for each of the deposits are controlled by late-stage NNE trending sub vertical structures, exhibiting varying amounts of dextral offset. In total, the Kundana area is known to host more than 5Moz of gold, including the deposits Raleigh, Rubicon, Hornet and Pegasus.

The Raleigh deposit is hosted within the Strzelecki Shear, located at the stratigraphic contact between Andesite/Intermediate Volcanoclastic and Gabbro, with varying amounts of interflow sediment.

The main lode comprises a laminated quartz vein up to 2m true width and dipping 70º west, grading on average 55 gpt Au. Gold is typically associated with sphalerite and galena. The deposit is well defined with drilling showing economic mineralisation extending up to 750m below surface.

The Rubicon, Hornet and Pegasus deposits are all hosted within the K2 Shear, located at the stratigraphic contact between Intermediate Volcanoclastic and the Victorious Basalt, with varying amounts of Centenary Shale.

The main lode comprises several mineralising events which can be distinguished by the presence of laminated or brecciated quartz, and differing amounts of galena, sphalerite, arsenopyrite and pyrrhotite. Vein grades typically average 25gpt Au for the main lode with the structure varying in thickness from 0.5-4m and dipping 80º west. Several hangingwall lodes with varying orientation have also been identified and exhibit localised ore grades.

All three deposits remain open at depth, with drilling and underground development identifying distinct high grade zones plunging to both the north and south.

Kundana also employs the method of underhand long hole bench stoping with paste fill similar to that of the Kanowna Belle operation. This method is used to ensure that high extraction rates of the orebody are achieved as the orebody can grade from 5.0gpt to +31gpt plus. This mining method also assists with minimising any future stress impact on the Operation.

Ore drives are mined along the strike of the orebody following the high grade laminated quartz vein. Once the strike ore drive is completed a vertical rise is established and extraction of the ore between two levels is commenced. The ore body is significantly narrower that the Kanowna Belle ore body with stope widths typically in the order of 1.0m to 2.5m wide.

The Kundana Operations currently consist of four underground ore bodies. The Raleigh ore body is accessed form the Raleigh pit with underground stoping occurring at +650m below surface. The other three orebodies, Rubicon, Hornet and Pegasus, are accessed from the Rubicon pit and portal with stoping occurring between 200m and 400m below surface.

Ore from the Kundana operations is treated at the NST owned Kanowna Belle processing facility located adjacent to the Kanowna Belle mine.

The Kanowna Belle processing plant is a complex and versatile plant that includes separate circuits for processing free-milling and refractory gold ores. The plant has undergone incremental capacity increases since its initial construction and now has an annual throughput capacity of 1.88Mtpa. Processing at the current rate of ~1.82Mtpa of underground ore affords the processing plant the ability to substantially increase production should the need arise.

The crushing and grinding circuits are common for the free milling and refractory circuits.

The crushing circuit is a simple single stage circuit with a 240t capacity ROM bin feeding a Jaques double toggle 60x48 (185kw) crusher at a 420tph crushing capacity. The crushed ore, nominally minus 125mm reports to a 20,000t partially-covered coarse ore stockpile with a live ........