The project consists of two separate mining areas over a total length of 30km with the individual deposits ranging in length from 1km to 8km. The Mulga Rock East mining centre comprises the Ambassador and Princess deposits and the Mulga Rock West mining centre comprises the Shogun and Emperor deposits.

The MRP is classed as a carbonaceous-sedimentary hosted, supergene enriched, uranium deposit. Mineralisation is hosted predominantly by unconsolidated Eocene sediments (39 Ma) which are rich in organic matter and comprise river and estuarinelake sediments. The organic matter originated primarily from land-based plant matter that washed into the channels and deposited into tributaries along the edge of an oxbow bend, forming peat.

The uranium mineralisation is hosted by the organic matter in the reduced sediments below the redox front. Most of the uranium is adsorbed onto organic matter in an ionic form (i.e. uranium metal). The remainder of the mineralisation comprises ultra-fine grained uraninite (UO2) and mixed uranium oxides. The individual uranium-rich units consist of stacked lenses that have strong lateral continuity, and are spatially associated with the redox front that coincides with the present-day water table.

Uranium mineralisation is hosted by flat-lying, carbonaceous clastic sediments which are in turn overlain by weathered, oxidised sediments that range in thickness from 19m to 62m of waste overburden.

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Due to the large lateral extent and horizontal geometry of the deposits, Vimy is proposing to use large-scale open pit ‘strip’ mining techniques like those used in mineral sands and other bulk mining operations. Strip mining commences with the excavation of an initial box cut to expose the ore, with the overburden placed in a surface landform. After mining the ore exposed by the first box cut, the resulting pit void is available to take the overburden from the next mining strip as mining moves along strike. In general, mining advances one strip at a time with previously mined areas progressively backfilled and rehabilitated. This mining method will result in ‘realtime rehabilitation’ leading to a smaller environmental footprint and significant savings in waste movement and end of mine life rehabilitation liability.

The regular geometry of the mining operation, with a fixed distance from the active mine face and backfill, lends itself to either a truck and shovel (T&S) operation, or continuous mechanised waste haulage system such as an in-pit crushing and conveying (IPCC) system. Vimy has investigated a number of mechanised mining systems, including drag line, dozer trap, bucket wheel excavator, and IPCC. These mechanised mining options have progressively been eliminated due to excessive capital cost or technical risk. For the purposes of the DFS, it has been determined that an owner-operator T&S operation is the most cost-effective mining approach for the MRP.

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