The project area lies within the Woods Point Walhalla Synclinorium structural domain of the Melbourne Zone, a northwest trending belt of tightly folded Early Devonian Walhalla Group sandy turbidites. The domain is bounded by the Enoch’s Point and Howe’s Creek Faults, both possible detachment-related splay structures that may have controlled the intrusion of the Woods Point Dyke Swarm and provided the conduits for gold bearing hydrothermal fluids.

The A1 deposit in general is characterised by narrow, very high-grade gold veins that are exploited using airleg stope mining within an extensive intrusive diorite. The Queens Lode is a large high-grade unmined part of the larger A1 gold mine system that is quite distinct from the typical ore mined historically, and still, at A1.

Most gold mineralisation in the Woods Point to Gaffney’s Creek corridor occurs as structurally controlled shear-zone hosted dilational breccias and stringer quartz vein systems hosted by dioritic dyke bulges. The A1 Mine is central to this corridor, with gold mineralisation contained within the steeply dipping main southern diorite dyke bulge and a smaller northern diorite dyke. The dyke is cut and offset by a series of mainly reverse faults which host most of the gold mineralisation.

Gold is associated with intense quartz-ankerite-muscovite-sulphide wall rock alteration around dilational breccia veins with branching quartz-sulphidic stringer veins or narrow veins within reve ........

The A1 Mine is currently undergoing a ramp up plan prepared by the Group that is designed to access increased production sources from airleg and mechanical mining methods.

Current ore extraction is through air-leg mining methods. The ore is then treated at the Group’s wholly owned CIL processing facility at Maldon. Production during the period was constrained while upgrades to mine power and ventilation infrastructure were implemented and new production fronts were developed.

The A1 Mine operation commenced its decline heading to the Queens Lode in the final quarter which opened access to the 19 Intermediate Level (“19INT”) is the first new level and ore to be accessed in several years. It provides growing confidence that the operations will continue to deliver high-grade ore to Kaiser’s processing plant at Maldon, where ramp-up planning and staffing has also commenced in anticipation of increased production.

The Group has developed a strategy to ramp up production in the short and medium term, targeting an advanced exploration target called the Queens Lode. The Queens Lode is anticipated to allow mechanised mining to increase the production rate overall. The Queens Lode is currently the subject of a resource delineation drilling programme.

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