The James Bay Niobium Deposit is hosted by the Carbonatite Complex and occurs in the northern portion of the KSZ of the Superior Province. Numerous alkalic and carbonatite intrusions occur along this structure, which extends from the east shore of Lake Superior northeast to James Bay. Rocks in the general area of the Property are characterized by granulite facies rank gneisses and a pervasive north- to northeast-trending fault pattern.

The Carbonatite Complex is overlain by approximately 10 m of overburden and 20 m of Lower Devonian rocks of the Sextant Formation consisting of poorly bedded sandstone, mudstone, siltstone, and loosely cemented conglomerate.

The Carbonatite Complex appears to be a dyke-like body with a long axis striking north. The enclosing gneisses are described as mylonitic or augen gneisses.

The principal niobium-bearing mineral is pyrochlore, but niobium also occurs, to a much lesser extent, in the mineral columbite.

According to Stockford (1972), the main pyrochlore-bearing phases of the Carbonatite Complex include lineated dolomitic carbonatite, calcite-dolomite carbonatite breccia, massive calcite-dolomite carbonatite, and “crushed” dolomitic carbonatite.

Significant pyrochlore mineralization occurs only in sodium and magnesium-rich phases of the carbonatite. The highest-grade mineralization occurs in a mixed dolomite-calcite host. The pure dolomitic host produces intermediate grades and pure calcite is normally low in grade or barren.

The columbite occurs along the eastern side of the complex over a strike length of 120 m in the crushed dolomitic carbonatite. The columbite is totally or partially pseudomorphic after pyrochlore. The columbite may occur in the core or the rim of the crystal, or it may completely replace the pyrochlore. The columbite does not appear to be restricted to any one rock unit, however, it does appear to be related to fracturing and hematitic alteration.

Pale green fluor-variety of apatite is universally present in all rock units within the carbonatite-pyroxenite complex. Usually, the highest-grade bands of pyrochlore-bearing carbonatite also contain abnormally high quantities of apatite, while the converse is not true.

Deposit Types
Carbonatite-associated deposits such as James Bay include a variety of mineral deposits that occur both within and in close spatial association with carbonatites and related alkalic silicate rocks. Carbonatite-associated deposits are mined for rare-earth elements (“REEs”), niobium, iron, copper, apatite, vermiculite, and fluorite. By-products include barite, zircon, or baddeleyite, tantalum, uranium, platinum group elements, silver, and gold.

Carbonatites may consist of a number of intrusive phases with different textural and mineralogical characteristics. Early phases typically consist mainly of calcite, do not contain peralkaline pyroxenes or amphiboles, and contain associated apatite + magnetite ± pyrochlore mineralization. Later phases, which may contain dolomite, ankerite and siderite, in addition to calcite, are commonly enriched in pyrochlore.

The James Bay Niobium Deposit is amenable to both open pit mining and underground mining methods given the proximity to surface and the value of the mineralization.

The Open Pit Scenario shows the most advantages for various reasons including better nearby mining experience in open pit mining; simplicity of operation; source of borrow material for tailings storage facility construction; easier scalability of operation to future expansions. However, the Open Pit Scenario represents the largest footprint. The following information relates only to the selected Open Pit Only Scenario with the other options described in the other sections of the report.

The Open Pit Scenario generates 70.8 Mt of mill feed over the life-of-mine (“LOM”) and an average grade of 0.44% Nb2O5 sufficient for a 30-year life Project. The open pit is mined out by Year 24 of operations with processing continuing with stockpiled low-grade material. A full year of pre-production mining is planned where overburden and waste rock are mined to expose mineralized material and provide construction materials for the tailings storage facility embankments.

Mining of the James Bay Project consists of four nested pit phases. Waste rock will be disposed of in the primary dump adjacent to the pit. Overburden material will be dumped in a distinct overburden dump to be reused on closure. The open pit generates 21.2 Mt of overburden and waste over the LOM for an average LOM strip ratio of 1.8:1. Mining will be carried out using conventional open pit techniques with 10 m benches. An owner mining open pit operation is planned with a peak mining rate of 10 Mtpy is targeted to feed the process plant at a rate of 2.4 Mtpy (6,600 tpd). Major equipment selected for the mine consists of two 7 m3 hydraulic face shovels and one 8.2 m3 front-end wheel loaders matched with a fleet of 64 t mine trucks.

Crushing
The ore will be crushed at less than 200 mm using a primary jaw crusher installed close to the process plant for the scenario based on an open pit operation. When an underground operation becomes the ore source, crushing may be done underground before being hoisted to surface.

Grinding
The grinding circuit will consist of two grinding steps in series with an interstage gravity circuit. The primary grinding will be done using a semi-autogenous (“SAG”) mill in closed circuit with cyclones with a final product passing 500 microns. The cyclone product will be further classified to remove the less 74 microns fraction before feeding the gravity circuit. The gravity concentrate will be reground in a ball mill in closed circuit to less than 250 microns prior to feeding the flotation circuit.

Gravity Separation
The specific characteristics of the James Bay ore provide the opportunity to remove a significant part of the gangue mineral with limited niobium mineral losses. The gravity separation is done in two-steps with gravity spiral in series. The current test work shows that 42% of the mass is removed at this stage with a positive impact on the downstream flowsheet. The gangue removed is sent to tailings.

Desliming Stage
To prepare the ore for the flotation step, the ore is deslimed. The trash is removed by using a linear screen and desliming occurs in a two-step cyclone classification. The cyclone overflow is sent to tailings.

Magnetic Separation
The magnetic iron mineral is removed from the ore using a two-step magnetic separator; the concentrate from the first step is cleaned in the second step and the final iron concentrate is sent to tailings.

Sulfide Flotation
The sulfides minerals are removed by flotation in thre ........