The Project is located within the Big Duck Lake Volcanic Belt which is part of the Archean Shebandowan-Wawa Volcanic Belt of the Superior Province of the Canadian Shield. Within the Big Duck Lake Volcanic Belt, the Winston Lake Sequence is comprised of a series of predominately felsic to intermediate volcanics, volcaniclastics and sediments with minor mafic flow, all with a calc- alkalic affinity. The sequence reaches a maximum thickness of 2km and a strike of approximately 6km.

The Winston deposit occurs as a single massive sulphide sheet over a strike length of 500m and a depth extension between 300 to 700m vertically. Dipping at an average of 50deg and an average of 7m thickness, with the maximum thickness in excess of 40m. At Winston there are two primary ore types. The first and most common is a fine to medium grained homogenous mix of pyrrhotite and sphalerite. The second ore type is composed of medium to course grained sphalerite with minor amounts of chalcopyrite, pyrrhotite and pyrite.

The Pick deposit is located 1km stratigraphically below the Winston deposit with an average strike length of approximately 250m and a depth extension tested between 300 to 1200m. Mineralization at Pick consists of fine-grained sphalerite, pyrrhotite, with minor chalcopyrite and pyrite.

The mine development has considered two options; the first being the re-establishment of the shaft system, refurbishment of the 615m level, and the development of a 1 in 7 hangingwall ramp at Pick. The second option would see a ramp developed from the surface, starting adjacent to the historical workings of Zenmac, across to the upper Resources of the Pick deposit, and then a 1 in 7 hangingwall ramp is developed to access the lower Resources at Pick. Work completed during the BFS indicates the ramp from the surface is the preferred option based on the following:
- Capital and operating cost slightly lower;
- Timing to first production is faster, and
- Potential risk impacts to the production schedule is seen as lower.

The mine design scheduling and costing for the decline option were undertaken by Orelogy Consulting Pty Ltd. They assumed all development headings will be developed using twin boom jumbos, which will also do the ground support installation. To accommodate the equipment, all accesses and drives will be developing using a minimum of a 4.5mH X 4.5mW profile. The main decline ramp is to be 5.0mW X 5.5mH to accommodate 40t trucks to optimize haulage costs. All headings will be designed at a minimum of 1 in 50 (2%) gradient to ensure drainage and the maximum gradient of declines and level accesses will not exceed 1 in 7 (14%). Existing lateral and vertical development at Pick has been utilized to reduce costs.

The Pick access ramp has been aligned to access existing vertical development to facilitate early primary ventilation and to provide drilling and potential access platforms for exploration targets.

The stoping methods used during historical operations included mechanised cut and fill, AVOCA and Alimak. Towards the end of the historic mine operations, a test stope was successfully completed at the Pick deposit using sub-level longhole stoping. The Company has selected longhole open stoping (LHOS) with introduced cemented paste fill as the preferred mining method.

The mine design will see the deposit split into mining areas, namely Pick Upper, Pick Middle (A & B) and Pick Lower (A & B). Each area consists panels of between four and five levels that also take cognizance of existing levels, with the narrower parts of each panel being mined top down and the thicker areas being mined bottom up. Some areas of the upper levels of Pick Upper use open stoping with rib pillars to improve economics. The stopes will be mined retreating on each level towards the centre where the level accesses will be located. This retreat mining minimizes the requirement for additional waste development. Once the level is complete and paste fill has cured, mining on the adjacent level can begin. During this curing time stopes can be mined in a different panel.

The ramp access will follow the historical preference and will be located in the hangingwall. Crosscuts from the ramp to commence ore development will be developed from the ramp to the ore at between 15m and 20m spacings, dependent on the thickness of the ore, to minimize any potential dilution and ore losses.

Ore drives will be developed using resue firing. Resue firing involves the separate blasting and removal of the ore and waste. This has been shown to decrease the dilution of the development ore where the ore is narrower than the profile of the development face.

The primary ventilation network consists of the decline ramps for intake and a series of ventilation and escape raises that parallel decline development with connection to the exiting Pick raises at strategic points. It was designed in stages to align with the mine’s development at logical points;
- Stage 1: Establishment of initial primary network for continued ramp development using Winston Shaft
- Stage 2: Connection to existing Pick RAR
- Stage 3: Pick Upper Stoping
- Stage 4: Pick Middle Stoping
- Stage 5: Pick Lower Stoping Life of Mine.

The Company will adopt the operating criteria that was used successfully for over a decade in the original Winston Lake Mine 1,000tpd concentrator. The proven process flow sheet that will be adopted in the processing facility will consist of a comminution circuit and two stage flotation circuit, one for copper and one for zinc. Copper and zinc concentrates will be shipped for smelting by a third party.

The process flowsheet development and plant design were undertaken by Primero Group Ltd (Primero). The new plant will include a SAG mill in the comminution circuit replacing the rod and ball mills used during historic operations. The floatation plant consists of separate, sequential copper and zinc circuits using multiple stages of cleaning with regrind of the rougher concentrates. Nominal throughput for the plant is 1000 tpd (325,000 tonnes per annum) with an average of 73,000 tonnes per annum zinc concentrate and 5,200 tonnes per annum copper concentrate produced. The con ........