Goldstrike mineralization is best described to be in the class of sedimentary rock-hosted Carlinstyle deposits. The Carlin-style class of gold deposits are not unique to the eastern Great Basin. They are characterized by concentrations of very finely disseminated gold in silty, carbonaceous, and calcareous rocks. The gold is present as micron-size to sub-micron-size disseminated grains, often internal to iron-sulphide minerals (arsenical pyrite is most common) or with carbonaceous material in the host rock. Free particulate gold, and particularly visible free gold, is not a common characteristic of these deposits; significant placer alluvial concentrations of gold are therefore not commonly associated with eroded Carlin-style gold deposits.

All Carlin-style deposits in the Great Basin have some general characteristics in common, although there is a wide spectrum of variants. Anomalous concentrations of arsenic, antimony, and mercury are typically associated with the gold mineralization; thallium, tungsten, and molybdenum may also be present in trace amounts. Alteration of the gold-bearing host rocks of Carlin-type deposits is typically manifested by decalcification, often with the addition of silica, fine-grained disseminated sulphide minerals, remobilization and/or the addition of carbon, and late-stage barite and/or calcite veining. Small amounts of white clays (illite) can also be present. Decalcification of the host produces volume loss, with incipient collapse ........

The PEA Study utilizes open pit mining with mine planning based on economic pit shells generated by mine planning software. Mine production is planned at 22,500 tonnes per day or 8.2 million tonnes per year of leach feed (mineralized) material. With an average waste to leach feed material strip ratio of 1.2 to 1, the average mining rate is approximately 50,000 tonnes per day of leach feed and waste material. The open pit mining at Goldstrike was designed utilizing an owner-operated, conventional mine fleet of front end loaders and trucks.

The project consists of a ROM heap leach with a carbon plant for solution recovery and on-site smelting of gold and silver into doré bars.

ROM material will be transported directly from the open pits to the heap and dumped by mine haul trucks. Before stacking on the heap, lime will be added to the trucks at a rate of 1.2 kg lime per tonne in a dedicated staging area along the mine haul road.

Material will be stacked in 9-meter high lifts. Stacking will be assisted by a low-pressure track dozer to push and spread material in preparation for leaching. Dozer ripping to facilitate improved percolation will also be performed after each lift has been stacked to the determined height.

The annual tonnage of ROM material stacked is approximately 8.1 million tonnes.

After each leach cell has been stacked and dozer ripped, the irrigation system will be installed. Dripline emitters will be used to apply a dilute cyanide solution, at an average appli ........