The Taronga tin deposit is hosted in Permian- Triassic hornfelsed sedimentary and volcanic rocks of the New England fold belt, assigned locally to the Grampians Formation. The host rocks were folded about their northwest to southeast (true bearings) axes with subsequent orthogonal re-folding. The host rocks were intruded by granites of Permian-Triassic age and these granites were the source of the tin, copper and silver mineralisation at Taronga. This is a classical geological setting for hydrothermal tin deposits of Eastern Australia.

Geological mapping indicates that the Taronga mineralisation occurs in sheeted quartz vein swarmswithin a north-east aligned anticlinal structure. Tin occurs within the swarms of quartz veinlets and tin mineralisation has been defined within two large zones, known as the Northern and Southern Zones. Two vein swarms in the Northern Zone are between 10m and 80m wide over lengths of between 600m and 650m to a depth of approximately 200m. Four separate vein swarms in the Southern Zone are 8m and 10m wide over lengths of between 150m and 550m, and have been outlined by previous drilling to a depth of approximately 150m.

Mineralogical studies as part of the metallurgical investigations for the deposit recognised three sequential events at varying mineralisation temperatures ranging from hightemperature, through intermediate temperature to low temperature with pneumatolytic hydrothermal and epithermal styles, respectively. The primary tin mineral cassiterite (SnO2) occurs with all three events and the greisen alteration occurs in the first two events.

As well as cassiterite, the Taronga deposit contains small concentrations of copper and silver as well as other elements including tungsten, molybdenum and fluorine.

The Stage 1 Project mining operations would be undertaken using both free dig and conventional drill and blast methods. Following appropriate site preparation, the ore or waste rock that is sufficiently fragmented would be recovered by free digging with an excavator. Once the ore or waste rock cannot be removed by free digging, it would be blasted, loaded and hauled by an off-road haul truck to the ROM pad approximately 50m away. The Open Cut Pit would be operated over a 12 to 18 month period and create a final void of up to 230m long x up to 90m wide x approximately 50m deep refer.

Following site preparation, production areas would be prepared using a combination of free dig and drill and blast methods. It is envisaged free digging would occur to depths of up to 1m below the surface. Thereafter, material would be drilled and blasted. Each production blast will initially fragment approximately 10,000t but subject to vibration levels fragmentation levels may be increased. One constraining factor in determining the maximum quantity of rock blasted during each blast would be the level of ground vibration permissible at two proposed monitoring stations (the communications tower located approximately 250m from the open pit (20mm/s) and the closest residence located approximately 750m northwest from the Open Cut Pit (5mm/s).

Blasts would be designed to place the majority of the fragmented rock on the active floor of the Open Cut Pit to limit the need to push or otherwise transport fragmented rock from the benches. Blasts would typically be undertaken with a drill hole spacing of generally 2.8m by 2.8m and up to a depth of approximately 13.5m with an expected Maximum Instantaneous Charge (MIC) of approximately 100kg. Drilling is expected to be undertaken for approximately 10 days per month and blasts would be undertaken by a licensed blasting contractor. It is anticipated there would be up to three blasts per month.

Any oversize material would be reduced in size through small charge popping or rock breaker. Popping would involve drilling holes within the oversize material and loading small volumes of explosives to further fragment the rock. The MIC during small charge popping would be significantly less than for production blasts, i.e. typically up to 5kg. A 30 tonne excavator and two haul trucks or similar sized equipment would be used to remove fragmented material from the Open Cut Pit. All ore would be delivered to the ROM Pad and waste rock either delivered to the Waste Rock Emplacement or retained in the Open Cut Pit.

Ore from the Open Cut Pit would be crushed and then treated in a series of production modules to produce tin concentrate over an 18 to 24 month period. The pre-concentration circuit would utilise gravity separation to produce a high grade intermediary tin concentrate and a rejects waste stream. The dressing plant would utilise comminution, gravity and flotation to separate the tin from the gangue or tailing.

Ore from the Open Cut Pit (less than 750mm in diameter) would be transported by haul truck to the Run of Mine (ROM) pad and stockpiled ahead of crushing. The ROM Pad would have a capacity of approximately 2000 tonnes, equivalent to approximately 12 hours feed for the crushing plant.

An excavator or front-end loader located on the ROM Pad would feed the primary jaw crusher. Crushing would be undertaken utilising mobile crushing and screening plant with a target throughput rate of 100 tonnes per hour. The crushing plant would consist of a primary jaw crusher and ........