The gold deposits within the Youga, Ouaré and Balogo properties can be described as epigenetic, mesothermal (“lode”) gold deposits, demonstrating a strong structural control and relationship to regional scale shear zones. Similar deposits can be found in other areas of the late Proterozoic Birimian terranes of West Africa.

At Youga and Ouaré, gold mineralisation is intimately associated with pervasive silicification, quartz veining and sulphidation (predominantly pyrite), although sulphide content is extremely low (generally <1%).

The majority of the Youga gold deposits are hosted within the Tarkwaian sandstones, while Ouaré is hosted along the sheared contact between mafic volcanics to the north and quartz-feldspar porphyritic rocks to the south.

At Balogo, gold mineralisation is typically associated with networks of quartz mineralisation or associated with disseminated sulphides within strongly deformed alteration zones.

Within the Youga deposit, there are two distinct styles of mineralisation:
• Moderately to weakly silicified arkose with quartz stockwork veining and pyrite is the predominant sulphide which generally grades between 0.5 g/t and 2 g/t
• Intensely silicified arkose with abundant quartz veins and more diverse sulphides which generally grades >3 g/t.

The Ouaré mineralisation is on the Bitou 2 Exploration Permit and has been delineated in three zones, along a strike length of 2 km.

At t ........

The proposed method of mining for the deposits at Youga, Ouaré and Balogo (Netiana) is a conventional open pit method using drilling and blasting, loading with hydraulic excavators, and hauling with articulated dump trucks. Consideration of underground mining has not been necessary at this stage of the Project.

Mining rates vary over the life of the mine, depending on the stripping ratio for the individual deposits or pits. The cut-off grade applied to each pit depends mainly on the location and ore transport cost. Other costs (Processing, General and Administration (G&A) etc.) were constant across all deposits.

At Youga and Ouaré there is limited opportunity to create pushbacks or stages within a final pit limit and it has generally only been possible to divide the individual deposits into sub-pits that may or may not be contiguous.

The Netiana pit was subdivided into two stages with a smaller starter pit to allow the mining sequence to target high grade with a low strip ratio in the first year of production. The starter pit has now been largely mined out and the remaining reserves will be mined out by Q4 2023.

To transport ore from Ouaré to Youga up to 30 Volvo trucks (40-t capacity) on two shifts per day, with each truck completing two trips per shift, or four trips per day, have been assumed. With an 80% availability, this translates into a capacity of 120,000 t/month.

The support equipment consists of drills, doze ........

- subscription is required.