The Gahcho Kué project hosts four primary kimberlite bodies Hearne, Tuzo, Tesla, and 5034. The four main kimberlite bodies are within two kilometers of each other.

The 5034, Hearne, Tuzo, and Tesla kimberlites all occur at the eastern edge of an interpreted southclosing fold-nose that has developed a radial fold-nose cleavage. The apparent south-closing fold is interpreted to open to the north–northeast; the dip direction is not known. The core of the fold is composed of granite and minor granodiorite. Northeast-trending axial-planar foliation associated with the fold is developed in gneiss.

The main part of the 5034 occurrence that reaches the surface occurs under Kennady Lake and can be divided into three lobes: West, Centre and East. These three lobes are joined at the surface, but separate at depth. The Centre and East lobes are modelled separately at shallow depth, but rejoin at greater depth producing what appears to be a window of granite within the kimberlite. The East and North lobes are joined at depth, geologically continuous, and are collectively referred to as the NorthEast Lobe. The surface measurements of the three lobes of the 5034 Main Pipe are approximately as follows:West Lobe – 125 m x 45 m
Centre Lobe – 125 m x 80 m; East Lobe – 85 m x 65 m.

The mine design and consequent mine plan considers indicated and inferred mineral resources of the 5034, Hearne, and Tuzo kimberlite pipes. Conventional truck/shovel mining utilising 29 m3 bucket diesel hydraulic front shovels, a 17 m3 front-end loader and 218 t class haulage trucks will be employed to mine the kimberlite and waste quantities. This large fleet will be augmented by 12 m3 bucket frontend loaders and excavators and 90 t haul trucks.

Pit designs were developed using optimised Whittle shells as a basis, and these were used to develop the mine production plan and schedule. The plans were optimised to smooth waste stripping requirements, while ensuring adequate kimberlite exposure to meet kimberlite feed requirements, as well as waste storage considerations within the Hearne and 5034 throughout the mine life.

The Gahcho Kué Project will mine kimberlite resources from three different deposits: 5034, Hearne, and Tuzo. In the process plant, this material will be treated via crushing, screening, dense media separation and x-ray sorting, to produce a diamond rich concentrate that will be hand sorted on site with the resulting diamond product sent to Yellowknife for final cleaning and Northwest Territories Government valuation. The processing plant is targeting the recovery of liberated diamonds in the 1 to 28 mm size range. The processing plant is designed for efficient diamond recovery over the plant’s 12- year life. The Gahcho Kué Plant processes will be automated to allow high-quality production with minimal human intervention.