The planned minesite at the Australian Vanadium Project lies within the Gabanintha and Porlell Archaean greenstone sequence orientated approximately northwest-southeast, adjacent to the Meekatharra greenstone belt in the Murchison Province.

The geology of the Gabanintha formation is a layered greenstone sequence of ultramafics, gabbros and dolerites/amphibolites, felsic tuffs, basalts and banded iron and cherts. The sequence above is from stratigraphic low to high. Regional granitoid batholith intrusions surround the greenstone rocks.

The deposit is comparable to the Windimurra vanadium deposit and the Barrambie vanadium titanium deposit located 140 km south and 80 km southeast of Gabanintha respectively. The mineral deposit consists of a basal massive high-grade vanadium bearing magnetite zone (10 to 15 m in true thickness), overlain by up to five low-grade magnetite banded gabbro units between 5 and 30 m thick separated by thin (<0.3% V2O5) waste gabbro zones. The sequence is overlain in places by a lateritic domain, a transported domain (occasionally mineralised) and a thin barren surface cover domain.

The north-northwest striking deposit is affected by a number of regional scale faults which offset the entire deposit, breaking the deposit into a series of kilometre scale blocks. The larger blocks show relatively little signs of internal deformation, with strong consistency in the layering being visible in drilling and over long distances b ........

The mining method selected is a conventional open pit truck and shovel approach. It is assumed that all material to be mined will require blasting to some degree, with reduced powder factors used for the weathered zones. Ore and surrounding waste are assumed to be blasted on 5 metre bench heights and mined in 2.5 metre high flitches using a backhoe excavator. Bulk waste will be blasted at 10m heights. Pit ramps are designed at a 10% gradient and 31 m wide, except for lower pit levels where the ramp reduces to 16 m wide. This will be adequate for haul trucks of up to a 150 tonne payload to be utilised.

Mining at the Project will be from a series of open pits that extends for 7,250m along strike, consisting of a large pit in the north with a length of approximately 3,000m, and then two smaller pits to the south of approximately 1,300m in length. There are two mining areas that have been defined by Inferred material and therefore do not form part of the Ore Reserve but are included at the end of the mine plan. This comprises a pushback to the southern Reserve pit and a small standalone pit between the central and southern Reserve pits. A small amount of Indicated material (<200kt) within the “Inferred” pits has been classified as Inferred material for the purposes of reporting.

The mining sequence is primarily driven by the requirement to maintain a consistent blend of weathered and fresh ore types to the processing plant. Mining commences in the southern ........

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