The Val-d'Or mining camp is well known for its lode gold deposits and copper, zinc, silver, and gold volcanogenic (VMS) deposits. Gold mineralization from the Val-d'Or mining camp has been classified as greenstone-hosted quartz-carbonate vein deposits or mesothermal or late-orogenic lode gold deposits associated with shear zones or extensional fractures.

Most of the gold resources on the Val-d’Or East Project have been delineated in three areas: Pascalis gold trend deposits, Courvan gold trend deposits, and Monique gold trend deposits. These generally consist of a complex system of veins composed of quartz, carbonate, and tourmaline with disseminated and/or blebby pyrite. The auriferous zones are commonly associated with shear zones and extensional fractures. Mineralization is concentrated in veins and/or in adjacent lithologies that are strongly altered due to hydrothermal fluid circulation.

Pascalis Gold Trend
The Pascalis gold trend hosts the New Beliveau, North Zone and Highway deposits. The New Beliveau and North Zone deposits are centered on a series of north-northwest trending sub-vertical intermediate dykes, forming a swarm identified over 3 km long, 1 km wide and 1 km deep.

The New Beliveau deposit, which encompasses the past producer L.C. Beliveau mine, is hosted within a sub-vertical microdiorite dyke oriented at N345° and perpendicular to the trend of volcanic formations. It is located about 2 km east of the Bourlamaque batholith margin. At the former L.C. Beliveau Mine, three parallel dykes named West, Main and East constitute the main swarm of diorite dykes. The thickness of the individual dykes varies from 5 to 15 m individually, but reaches 30 m combined. At the mine, 90% of the veins and gold mineralization is hosted inside the Main dyke. With an average thickness of 10 m, the mineralized zones were originally traced to 580 m vertical depth over a 300 m strike length. This suggests an extension at depth towards the west.

The extensional and shear veins form 3 to 20 m thick tabular shaped mineralized envelopes with orientations varying between 90° to 110° and dips of 25° to 35° to the south. They can reach a few hundred metres laterally in an east-west direction as well as in the axis of the dip. Free gold grains can be observed in veins and at the surface or in fractures within coarse euhedral pyrite crystals.

57 volcanic and three dyke zones were interpreted from the surface to 900 m depth in the New Beliveau deposit, and 25 volcanic and three dyke zones up to 500 m depth in North deposit. All the deposits remain open to the west, east, south, and at depth.

The Highway showing was the first significant gold occurrence discovered on the property in 1931. It is located 1,000 m northwest of the former L.C. Beliveau. The gold mineralization with the notable exception that the veins are hosted within a competent gabbroic unit instead of diorite dykes. The mineralized system comprises 24 subparallel tabular zones dipping 30° to 40° to the south and striking 75° to 90°. Two zones steeply dipping to the south were also interpreted. For now, the Highway gold system can be traced over 400 m east-west by 500 m north-south and to a depth of 500 m. The Highway zone remains open to the south, east, and at depth.

Courvan Gold Trend
The Courvan gold trend (CGT) extends over 2.5 km along the Bourlamaque eastern margin and up to 2 km inside the batholith in its southern part. The CGT comprises the Bussiere, Creek, Bordure, Southwest, and Southeast deposits. The latter is opened to the west, north, south and at depth. Gold mineralization is structurally controlled by several major shear zones and faults, striking 250° and dipping 75° to the north to sub-vertical, dividing the CGT into structural blocks.

Quartz-tourmaline-carbonate veins form echelon networks with a sub-horizontal to moderate dip to the north. When the frequency and grade of individual veins are high enough, they can form tabular mineralized envelopes with an average thickness of 3 to 15 m and strike up to a few hundred metres in an east-west direction as well as in the dip direction. A second type of gold veins sub-parallel to the shear zones is also observed. They have an average direction at N250° and a dip of 70° towards the north-west. Historically, they represented a small proportion of the ore extracted from the Bussiere mine. The mineralized zones are primarily hosted in the Bourlamaque granodiorite and show rather limited extensions in the volcanic rocks. The vein systems indeed seem to develop better in the granodiorite offering better competence compared to volcanic rocks. Diorite dykes injected in the granodiorite can also contain mineralized veins, but they represent less than 2% of the mineralized zones of the deposits.

Monique Gold Trend
The Monique gold trend (MGT) hosts 17 important gold zones, including the G Zone from the former Monique mine open pit and numerous other gold occurrences intercepted by drilling. Inside the MGT, gold-bearing zones are related to mesothermal lode gold deposits and found principally along two main west-northwest trending sub-parallel deformation corridors in the Jacola Formation, about 150 to 200 m wide and extending over 2.5 km along strike. The first G-J-P deformation corridor is located in the center part of the property and follows roughly the contact between an ultramafic unit to the north and basalts to the south. This corridor contains the former Monique open pit. The second A-BI-M corridor, approximately 150 m to the south, encompasses the upper portion of the southern volcanic domain composed of mafic to andesitic-basalt flows, volcaniclastics, and hyaloclastites. Both corridors are injected by multiple metric feldspar (± quartz) porphyritic intermediate dykes, often containing gold mineralization. The interpreted mineralized zones have general orientations of N270 290° with dips of 70° to 82 ° to the north.

The mineralized zones of the MGT consist of shear veins and/or a stockwork of quartz-tourmaline carbonates veins with disseminated to coarse pyrite. The auriferous zones are commonly associated with shear zones and extensional fractures. Mineralization is concentrated in veins or in adjacent lithologies which are strongly altered due to hydrothermal fluid circulation. The quartz vein systems are mainly parallel to the stratigraphy and to the deformation zones. Gold is generally associated with 1% to 5% finely disseminated pyrite, and visible gold is common in the quartz and carbonate veins and veinlets. The zones vary in thickness between 2 to 10 m in general and reach up to 30 m. Mineralized zones can extend more than 900 m laterally and they have been traced by drilling to a vertical depth up to 600 m.

Three main structural types of gold-bearing mineralization are observed, primarily consisting of (1) replacements and veins subparallel to shear zones; (2) vein arrays associated with riedels, detachment surfaces and late faults/fractures 10° to 25° relative to shear foliation, and (3) extensional/conjugated sub-horizontal veins secant to the shear envelope.

The scoping-level mine planning work that has been completed to date demonstrates viable economics for the extraction of ~45 million tonnes of mill feed at an average mill feed gold grade of 1.88 g/t. The economic open pit mining shells for the Monique, Pascalis and Courvan gold trends capture a good portion of the resource, and underground mining methods capture additional economic material below the open pit mining limits.

Open Pit
Specific to a PEA-level assessment, the overall angle is considered the same as the inter-ramp angle, as highwall ramps and geotechnical berms (for the consideration of interramp angle) are added in future. Pit slope angles are described for each deposit.

Creek Deposit – The open pit slopes planned for the Creek deposit can support slopes of up to 53° in wall orientations facing 310-350°, and slopes of up to 59° for all other wall orientations.

Bussiere Deposit – Open pits for the Bussiere deposit can support slopes of up to 53° in wall orientations facing 310-350°, and slopes of up to 59° for all other wall orientations.

Southwest Deposit – Open pits of the Southwest deposit can support slopes of up to 59° for all wall orientations.

Southeast Deposit – Open pits of the Southeast deposit can support slopes of up to 53° for wall orientations facing 110- 150°, up to 49° for wall orientations facing 150-190°, and 59° for all other wall orientations.

Highway Deposit – Open pits of the Highway deposit can support slopes of up to 50° for wall orientations facing 120-160°, and 59° for all other wall orientations.

North Zone Deposit – Open pits of the North Zone deposit can support slopes of up to 52° for wall orientations facing 300°to 015°, and 59° for all other wall orientations.

New Beliveau Deposit – Open pits of the New Beliveau deposit can support slopes of up to 52° for wall orientations facing 115° to 155°, and 59° for all other wall orientations.

Beliveau South Deposit – Open pits of the Beliveau South deposit can support slopes of up to 52° for wall orientations facing 115° to 155°, and 59° for all other wall orientations.

Monique GJ Deposit – Open pits of the Monique GJ deposit can support slopes of up to 52° for walls dipping in the direction of 310-015°, slopes up to 54° in wall orientations ranging from 015-035°, slopes up to 55° in wall orientations 095-115°, and 59° for all other wall orientations.

Monique I Deposit – Open pits for the Monique I deposit can support slopes of up to 52° for walls dipping in the direction of 340-020°, and 59° for all other wall orientations.

Monique AB Deposit – Open pits for the Monique AB deposit can support slopes of up to 48° for walls dipping in the direction of 330-010°, and 59° for all other wall orientations.

The selected shells were split into smaller ‘phases’ or ‘pitlets’ where appropriate. Pitlets with less than 250 kt of mill feed were removed from consideration for mine planning, since they are considered too small for larger scale mining operations. In practice, these small pitlets would be mined with smaller pieces of mining equipment or by contract miners.

Except for large pit in Beliveau, all pitlets are considered autonomous phases that can be mined independently. For the largest pit in Beliveau, a smaller LG shell was utilized as a starter phase and completed before the remaining material (or “phase 2”).

In-situ rock will be drilled and blasted on 10 m benches to create suitable fragmentation for efficient loading and hauling of both mill feed and waste rock. It is expected topsoil and overburden will not require blasting and will be confirmed with later studies. Loading of mill feed and waste will be completed with hydraulic excavators on 10 m benches. Bench heights of 5 m in mill feed may be considered based on grade control requirements.

Mill feed material mined from the pit will either be delivered to the crusher at the plant, the screening and ore sorting facility, long-term ROM stockpiles by these facilities, or the mill feed stockpiles. The crusher at the plant, the screening and ore sorting facility, and ROM stockpiles are centrally located on the east side of the rail line. Waste rock and overburden/topsoil storage facilities are planned at each site for waste materials from the open pit.

The production schedule is based on the following parameters:
• Mineral quantities are split by pitlet and bench.
• Pre-production lasts one year.
• The annual mill feed rate is 3,650 kt/a throughout the mine life.
• Screening for ore sorted material splits 22.5% of mass as fines with an enrichment ratio of 125%.
• Ore sorting after screening implements a mass recovery of 25%, gold recovery of 75%, and annual feed rate of 2,733 kt/a
• A direct feed breakeven economic cut-off grade of 0.38 g/t Au is used; material between 0.38 g/t Au and 0.8 g/t Au is routed to the screening and ore sorting circuit
• Material above 0.25 g/t Au is considered economic once screening and ore sorting is performed (fines are combined with the ore sorted product and feed to the mill).
• Stockpiling is utilized to meet the mill and ore sorting throughput targets.
• For Years 1 to 3 of plant life, only direct mill feed above 0.80 g/t Au will be processed.
• The screening and ore sorting facility will be commissioned In Year 4:
- material from 0.38 g/t to 0.80 g/t of Au will be considered for processing as direct feed or from the long-term stockpiles
- mill feed from 0.25 g/t to 0.38 g/t Au will be stockpiled until as late as possible in the mine life
• Within a given phase, each bench is fully mined before completion of the next bench.
• Beliveau is mined in sequence; Phase 2 is mined after the Phase 1 starter shell.
• Vertical advance rate is limited to 12 benches per year (or one bench per month).

The Owner will purchase the mining equipment.

Underground
Underground mine designs, mine production schedules, and mine capital and operating costs have been developed for the Monique, Courvan, and Pascalis gold trends at a PEA level of engineering. This study considers longhole retreat (LHR) and mechanized drift and fill (MDF) underground mining options for the deposits. Access to the underground portion of each trend is planned using declines from pit bottoms or pit walls, respecting crown pillars. Underground material extraction is planned using a fleet of 10-tonne load-haul-dump (LHD) units and 30-tonne haul trucks to bring mill feed to stockpiles located next to their respective portals. From there, front-end loaders will load 40- tonne highway trucks which will transport the material to the central process plant. Development waste is removed with the same equipment and placed close to the portals for use as backfill as required. MMTS designed open pits to mine the Monique, Courvan and Pascalis gold trends.

The mine design was developed to support mine production rates of either 500 t/d or 1,000 t/d depending on the mining method selected. This is to be achieved using both cemented rockfill and uncemented rockfill depending on whether the stope or cut is adjacent to previously backfilled stopes.

All the underground mines will be developed independently. Two mines are developed prior to the first underground production commencing. Once production commences, the number of mines in operations rises to six (average of five in operations).

Extraction rates for the underground zones are: Monique: 1,000 t/d, Courvan: 500 t/d, Pascalis: 500 t/d.

The mining contractor will supply its own mining equipment and personnel during pre-production development and operations.

Crushing and Ore Sorting Circuit
Phase 1
In Years 1 to 3 of production, ROM material is delivered by haul truck to the ROM feed bin where mineralized material will feed the crushing circuit. ROM material is fed into the crushing circuit to a vibrating grizzly screen. Grizzly screen oversize then feeds the primary jaw crusher, while grizzly undersize bypasses primary crushing. The material is reduced for secondary and tertiary screening and crushing before reaching the mill feed stockpile. The crushing circuit product is designed to be 80% passing size of 7.7 mm. Ore sorting is not included in Phase 1.

Phase 2
In Year 4 of production, additional crushing capacity and ore sorting is introduced. The existing three-stage crushing circuit from Phase 1, Circuit A, is fed sub-grade material for the ore sorting circuit. The middling size fraction from the secondary screen of Circuit A is sent to an additional screen, the fine sorting screen, for further classification before being introduced to either the coarse or fine ore-sorting circuits. The rejected material from ore sorting is stockpiled and hauled to a waste rock storage facility. The product material from ore sorting is returned to the crushing circuit at the tertiary screen for further size reduction and classification, eventually to feed the ball mill and processing plant. The Phase 2 crushing circuit product is designed to produce an 80% passing size of 8 mm. The additional crushing capacity in the Phase 2 expansion includes a primary and secondary crusher in open circuit, which feed the tertiary screen. The purpose of this circuit (Circuit B) is to have a pathway for high-grade material to bypass ore sorting. The grade of Circuit B material is high enough to be introduced directly to the ball mill circuit.

Grinding
Mill feed is reclaimed from the mill feed stockpile by two apron feeders. From the apron feeders, the crushed mineralized rock is fed to a ball mill by a conveyor. Process water is added to slurry the ball mill feed for particle size reduction. The mill also receives oversized material from the gravity scalping screen and the underflow from the hydrocyclone cluster pack. The mill is operated in closed circuit where the product is discharged into a pumpbox for both the hydrocyclone cluster pack and the gravity circuit. Material that is too coarse at either unit operation will return for further size reduction. This three-stage crushing and ball mill reduction circuit is known as a 3CB comminution circuit.

Quicklime is fed onto the ball mill feed conveyor from a storage silo and discharge screw conveyor. The ball mill acts as a lime slaker, raising the pH of the slurry before the downstream leaching stage. Ball mill discharge is pumped to a hydrocyclone cluster and a gravity circuit. The hydrocyclones classify ball mill discharge to achieve the particle size (hydrocyclone overflow) of 80% passing size of 75 microns (µm). The hydrocyclone underflow containing larger particles returns to the ball mill for further size reduction; the circulating load within the ball mill hydrocyclone circuit is expected to be 350%.

The plant will process material at a rate of 3.65 Mt/a with an average head grade of 1.88 g/t Au over the life of mine to produce doré.

The project flowsheet has been selected based on recovery methods required for processing Val-d’Or East material, supported by preliminary testwork and financial evaluations. The flowsheet includes an expansion of the crushing circuit in Year 4 with particle ore sorting capabilities. This increases the throughput introduced to the crushing circuit while maintaining a constant process plant feed rate at an increased gold grade.

The process plant in Phase 1 (before expansion) includes the following:
• three-stage crushing of run-of-mine (ROM) material;
• covered crushed material stockpile to provide buffer capacity for the process plant;
• ball mill with cyclone classification;
• gravity recovery of ball mill discharge by one semi-continuous centrifugal gravity concentrator, followed by intensive cyanidation of t ........