The ore bodies at New Luika comprise high grade (>6g/t Au), medium grade (3 – 6 g/t Au) and low grade (1 – 3 g/t Au) to average 3.9g/t Au.

The regional geology is characterised by deformed, folded, sheared and metamorphosed paleoproterozoic rocks with major fold axes trending east southeast to west northwest. The following main lithological units occur in the region:

Ilunga Granite Formation
The Ilunga Granite is located in the northern portion of the Lupa Goldfield and is mostly comprised of a medium to coarse grained leucogranite (aplogranite). Biotite and muscovite are commonly associated secondary minerals.

Saza Granite Formation
The Saza Granite is located in the central portion of the Lupa Goldfield and consists of numerous rock types including hornblende rich granites and hornblende-biotite rich granodiorites.

Gneiss Formation
The Gneiss Formation, the main ore bearing host, is the dominant rock unit within the Lupa Goldfield. The Gneiss Formation has been subjected to at least three granitic intrusive events that have given rise to a variety of rock types such as felsitic gneiss, biotite and hornblende granite gneiss, leucocratic granular gneiss. Diorite, granodiorite and granite rocks are evident within the Gneiss Formation.

Mineralised quartz veined targets are hosted within brittle-ductile to ductile deformational features of variable orientation.

NLGM is Shanta Gold’s anchor in the Lupa Goldfield (located in the Chunya region of Tanzania) which is the second largest gold producing area in Tanzania. NLGM is centered in the NW area of the Lupa Goldfield acting as a processing hub for key open pit deposits Bauhinia Creek and Luika (both <3km away).

The selection of mining method was initially based on the orebody geometry and expected ground conditions. The selection of mining method was done in consultation with SMCL who preferred a single mining method to be applied to each orebody .

Overhand cut-and-fill mining method was selected for Luika and long-hole open-stoping mining method was selected for Bauhinia Creek.

Geotechnical recommendations on appropriate stope sizes and ground support were provided to SMCL by Middindi Consulting (Pty) Ltd. Longhole open- stopes were limited to 20 m along strike and two 15 m sub levels high.

Dilution was incorporated into the ore reserve by applying a waste skin to the conceptual mining shapes. A skin of 0.3 m was used to cut-and-fill, and long-hole open-stope footwalls. A skin of 0.8 m was used for long-hole openstope hangingwall.

A mining recovery factor of 0.95 was applied to both cut-and-fill and longhole open-stope production, with the exception of the final retreat under cutand-fill sill pillars where a mining recovery factor of 0.80 was applied. Minimum mining widths of 6 m for cutand-fill and 3 m for long-hole openstopes were used. A minimum pillar dimension between parallel stopes of 4 m for cut-and-fill and 7.5 m for longhole open- stopes was also applied.

Production is by way of a conventional three stage crushing, two mills in parallel and a carbon in leach operation and cyanidation leaching facility.

The elution and electrowinning circuit at Shanta Gold’s New Luika mine near Mbeya in Tanzania has been fully commissioned.