Kayelekera is a sandstone-hosted uranium deposit associated with the Permian Karoo sediments and is hosted by the Kayelekera member of the North Rukuru sediments of the Karoo. The mineralisation at Kayelekera is hosted in several arkose units where they are adjacent to the Eastern Boundary Fault zone. The mineralisation forms more or less tabular bodies restricted to the arkoses, except adjacent to the NS strand of the Eastern Boundary fault at the eastern extremity of the pit. Here, mineralisation also occurs in mudstones in the immediate vicinity of the fault. The highest grades correspond to the intersection of the eastern and Champhanji faults. Mineralisation grade and tonnage declines with lateral distance from these faults. The lowest level of known mineralisation is currently at a depth of approximately 160m below surface.

Kayelekera is situated close to a major tectonic boundary between the Ubendian and the Irumide domains. The Ubendian domain consists of medium to high-grade metamorphic rocks and intrusions cut by major NW-SE dextral shear zones and post-tectonic granitoid intrusions dated at 1.86Ga (Lenoir et al., 1995). These shear zones may well have been reactivated during and after deposition of the Karoo sequence, since many major brittle faults that offset the Karoo-aged rocks have the same orientation.

Mineralisation at Kayelekera is hosted in several arkose units where they are adjacent to the Eastern Boundary Fault zone. The mineralis ........

Orelogy was commissioned by Lotus to conduct the design and scheduling work for the open pit mining component of the Restart DFS.

The mining operation extends over a 6-year mining period followed by a further 4 years of stockpile rehandle. Mining will be undertaken by an independent mining contractor using a multi-stage approach to focus on value maximisation and minimising waste development in the early years, whilst ensuring ore continuity can be maintained over the life of the project.

Mining Method
Conventional open pit mining has been adopted as the preferred mining method as:
- The ore presents as a series of horizontally stacked arkose layers separated by mudstone layers all of which are close to the surface.
- There is space to construct waste dumps to the west of the open pit development.
- It has already been successfully demonstrated with operations running from 2009 to 2014.
- It is expected, with a high chance of success, to generate the best value.

The operation is currently planned in four stages over the 6-year mine life. Open pit mining will be undertaken using:
- A fleet of 75 t class excavators and 60 t class rigid dump trucks supported by an appropriate ancillary fleet will be used to mine approximately 7 Mtpa. This equipment matches the scale of the operation and the mining environment, characterised by predominantly oxide/transitional materials. Bench heights are 10.0m hi ........

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