The Mowana Copper Project is hosted within north-northeast striking, steeply east dipping carbonaceous and argillaceous metasediments of the Matsitama Metasedimentary Group which are enclosed within foliated granitoids of the Mosetse Complex.

Hypogene sulphide mineralisation occurs within sub-vertical epithermal quartz-calcite vein breccias containing predominantly chalcopyrite + pyrite ± galena and sphalerite mineralisation. Hypogene mineralisation is capped by secondary oxide and supergene copper enrichment up to depths of approximately 50m and 150m below surface respectively. This in turn is overlain by Phanerozoic Karoo Supergroup siltstones, conglomerates and local tillite over the north and west areas of the deposit with depths varying from 1 to 90m. Regolith cover over the southern extent of the deposit generally consists of shallow (1 - 3m) clay rich black soils.

The metasediments hosting the deposit occur parallel to and within the northern extent of the 200km long north-northeast trending regional Bushman lineament exhibiting thicknesses variable between 200 to 400m mostly due to large scale pinch and swell amplitudes of up to 600m. However, the contact between the footwall sediments and the western granitoid has not been intersected in any of the historical or recent drilling.

Four deformation periods have been interpreted within the project area, the strongest and most significant with regards to veining and mineralisation being the deformation that initiated the regional scale Bushman lineament. A final post mineralisation deformation event produced a number of northeast trending parallel faults transecting the mineralised breccia at a low angle into three main zones of roughly equal length. From north to south, they are Mapanipani North, Mapanipani and Bushman sections.

The footwall argillaceous metasedimentary rocks exhibit alteration mineralogy and textures of retrograde regional greenschist metamorphism from either a higher grade lower amphibolite facies or arguably a more localised thermal metamorphic hornfels. In the Mapanipani and Bushman sections, localised but well developed talc/serpentine alteration from metasomatism occurs within dolomitic lithologies.

Sulphide bearing veins are generally spatially associated with carbonaceous (graphitic) argillites and are composed of quartz+calcite ± K feldspar in varying ratios with three stages of quartz veining having been identified. Only the second vein generation bears Cu, Pb & Zn sulphides. Areas of intense vein stockworks have been termed breccias and form the copper deposits. Photo 3.2 shows a block of typical brecciated oxidised ore.

Fluorite and barite are rare but locally evident. Pyrite + chalcopyrite occur mostly as semi-massive patches and coarse aggregates. Galena±sphalerite occurs locally usually associated with fluorite in discreet zones generally separate from chalcopyrite mineralisation which it slightly post-dates.

Regarding veining and mineralisation, the graphitic argillite (Photo 3.3) is the most significant lithology of the metasedimentary assemblage.

It is moderately to strongly graphitic, fine to very fine grained, black to very dark grey, laminated to fissile. The unit may grade into both cleaner limestones and more argillaceous pelitic rocks. Lamination is at a mm-scale ranging from planar to highly contorted and it commonly hosts fine grained pyrite in disseminations and small irregular stringers. Most of the intervals identified as carbonaceous phyllite or graphite schist form either the immediate wallrocks to the mineralised breccias and/or host moderate to high density veining forming a graphitic breccia.

The distribution of this unit is somewhat irregular, since it can form a relatively thick envelope to the breccias, be absent or entirely replaced by the breccia units up to their contact with the host limestone. This is also evident in cross section where the graphitic unit may occur in the upper part of a section and is absent lower down and/or vice versa. This is probably due to the unit having a pod like or lensoidal nature both along strike and down dip throughout the metasedimentary assemblage due to deformation. Its highly ductile nature would have led to this unit absorbing a lot of the strain under deformation.

Similar juxtapositions are seen with other lithologies in that, in the North Pit, limestone is on the hangingwall side of the orebody, whereas in the South Pit it is on the footwall.

In terms of the current Mowana pit, evidence suggests that the South Pit has a higher copper grade, less graphite, but the sulphide mineralisation is deeper, whilst the North Pit has a lower grade, but with more graphite, although the sulphides are nearer surface. In essence, the graphite is a problem for processing (although the use of a different collector may reduce this affect), but the very visual nature of it should allow avoidance of the worst of this material during mining.

Therefore, in summary, the near surface tenor of the orebody at Mowana is characterised by the mixed nature of oxide and supergene enrichment extending from surface to a maximum depth of approximately 70m. With increasing depth supergene chalcocite mineralisation continues and dominates with a nominal transition to Chalcopyrite-bearing hypogene mineralisation at around 150m below surface.

The production rate of the Mowana Mine is planned at 1.2Mtpa.

The processing plant has two flotation circuits, whereby minerals are initially separated, then the tailings from the roughers are transported to an oxide circuit. Most other mineral species are recovered in the oxide flotation process and concentrates are filtered to recover excess process water. The tailings are de-watered using thickeners and then deposited into a tailings storage facility. The water recovered in the de-watering stages is recycled to the various parts of the plant as appropriate.

Plant now operating and ramping up to nameplate 1.2Mtpa capacity.

DMS Upgrade expected to double capacity to 2.6 Mtpa.

The crushing and processing plant comprises:
* a conventional crushing and screening circuit consisting of a primary crusher (fed from the ROM pad), and a secondary and tertiary crusher presenting a 15mm feed size to the mill;
* a single 160tph ball mill;
* a conventional dual oxide/sulphide flotation circuit;
* a concentrate drying circuit, including a Larox filter;
* a concentrate bagging station; and
* tailings dewatering equipment.

ROM ore is trucked to a stockpile where it can be blended before being fed into a 350t ROM bin. The ore is recovered using an apron feeder to an Osborne jaw crusher, where it is reduced in size from a nominal 600mm to 150mm.

The jaw crusher is rated at 350tph, but can do up to 400tph. The crushed product is transported via three conveyors, fitted with metal detectors and magnets, a distance of some 900m to a 30kt coarse ore stockpile.

The coarse ore is reclaimed via two of three sub-level feeders, and is conveyed to a double deck screen fitted with 38 and 15mm mesh. The screen undersize is conveyed to the fine ore stockpile and the oversize gravitates to a secondary Osborne 38 cone crusher. The crushed product is conveyed to one of two 16mm screens in parallel, and the screen oversize gravitates to an Osborn 38 tertiary crusher.

The final product is approximately -16mm and is conveyed to a 20kt fine ore stockpile. The two cone crushers were installed new in 2012, replacing the second-hand machines that were originally installed.

The crushing circuit was designed to operate 12 hours per day, but generally worked 18 hours due to operational issues.

Grinding.
The crushed ore is conveyed to a FL Smith rubber lined overflow ball mill. The mill is 4.6 x 6.7m and is fitted with 2.5MW motor. The maximum capacity of the mill was stated to be 160tph, depending on ore hardness and is currently the bottleneck to current and future processing operations.

The mill discharge is pumped to two of three cyclones, the underflow is returned to the mill and the overflow, at 80% passing 150 microns, passes to flotation.

Flotation.
There are two separate circuits for sulphide and oxide flotation. Rougher flotation takes place at natural pH (i.e pulp ‘as-is’ i.e. with no modification) in six 20m3 Bateman flotation cells. The rougher concentrate is cleaned in a cleaner scavenger circuit consisting of 4+1 5m3 cells. The first cleaner concentrate is further cleaned in two 10m3 cells.

The final concentrate is pumped to a high rate thickener, and the thickener underflow is pumped via a stock tank, to a Larox pressure filter, rated at 250tpd. The filtered concentrate is loaded into 2t Bulka Bags and transported from site by 30t road truck by Fujax as per the off-take agreement.