The Butcherbird Project area is situated in the Bangemall Basin adjacent to the eastern unconformable boundary of the Savory Basin, in central Western Australia. The Bangemall Basin contains three major stratigraphic units which are outlined below from oldest to youngest:
• The Backdoor Formation consists primarily of shales, mudstone and minor siltstones, outcropping in the southern, western and northern extents of the project area;
• The Calyie Sandstone is comprised of well bedded quartzite sandstone, occurring to the north of the project area at the contact between the Ilgarari Formation and Calyie Sandstone;
• The Ilgarari Formation consists of grey/white shales which also exhibit red/brown weathering, mudstone, miner siltstone layers, and dolerite sills. The Ilgarari Formation is part of the Collier Subgroup and outcrops across the majority of the Bangemall Basin, containing the target manganiferous shales.

Structurally the Ilgarari Formation is generally flat, or gently folded with alternating synforms and antiforms with an east-west dominant axial trend. There are three primary north-east trending structures within the extents of the project area:
• The Neds Gap Fault is a sinistral strike-slip fault that delineates the Ilgarari basin western boundary;
• The Illgararie Mine shear zone consists of a set of sub–parallel shears with a predominant south western dip, which plays host to copper mineralisation;
• The Butcherbird Mine shear zone is situated along the south-eastern margin of the Illgararie area and shares similar characteristics to the Illgararie Mine shear zone.

There are five major lithologic horizons located within the Butcherbird Project area capped by a thin botryoidal duricrust. The lithological sequence within the project area is outlined below:
• Duricrust Unit: an exposed botryoidal duricrust positioned on top of the manganese mineralisation which ranges in thickness from 0.1 metres to 2 metres;
• Hard Cap Rock Unit: occurs intermittently across the project area, particularly away from the Yanneri ridgeline. The cap rock is comprised predominantly of iron-rich calcretes and soils with minor occurrences of manganiferous bands demonstrating botryoidal and cemented textures;
• Manganiferous Shale Unit: is the primary shale unit contains a supergene enriched manganiferous horizon with an average thickness of 10m to 25m. The manganese layers are predominantly 1cm to 1m thick which are confined to distinct bands of cryptomelane within geothitic friable clays. There are also very minor interbedded red/brown shales intermixed within the clay bands. Botryoidal textures are a common characteristic observed within the manganese mineralisation zone, in particular the clay rich zones;
• Upper Shale Unit: is a reddish/brown oxidised shale horizon which exhibits minor manganese along small fractures, fissures, and joints. This unit is predominantly 30 metres to 40 metres below the topographic surface and also contains clay minerals and hematite staining;
• Dolerite Unit: is a medium-grained weathered unit interbedded between the two basal shales which exhibits relatively parallel bedding that have undergone gentle folding;
• Lower Shale Unit: capped by the weathered dolerite unit. The upper boundary of the lower shale unit has been used as the basement surface for this resource estimate

The extent of the Butcherbird Project area encompassing the four deposits (Coodamudgie, Mundawindi, Richies, and Yanneri) extends from approximately 769500E to 778800E, and 729700N to 7299500N.

The average thickness of mineralisation is approximately 5 metres with an average width of 18 metres.

The Yanneri deposit is a stratiform sedimentary manganese deposit hosted within the Ilgarari Formation which is mostly flat lying with some occurrence of gentle folding.

The manganese mineralisation occurs within three primary ore zones;
• High grade manganiferous cap;
• Supergene enriched manganiferous laterite;
• Basal shale.

The mine plan is designed to utilise the unique tabular geometry of the mineralisation at Yanneri Ridge to provide a simple and low-cost mining operation. Mining has been scheduled to maintain ore supply to the processing plant to meet production requirements. Geotechnical Studies supported by trial mining has identified that the orebody will mostly be mineable using free dig techniques not requiring drilling and blasting to loosen the ore. Mining will consist of loaders mining 1-2m tall benches and delivering the ore into a mobile-crusher feed-hopper via a grizzly.

To enable the loaders to efficiently extract the ore, the ore will be cross-ripped with a dozer prior to mining.

The initial Project open pit is planned to be approximately 1,000 metres long, 650m wide and up to 10m deep. This is a staged seven-year starter pit within the overall optimised final pit shape. This starter pit targets the higher grade proved and probable mining reserve and allows access for mine scheduling with minimal waste removal from the Yanneri Ridge mineral resource.

The current estimated open pit life is 40 years. The pit designs contain 53.1Mt of ore at an average grade of 10.3% Mn and is expected to be mined along with 18.3Mt of waste for an overall strip ratio of 0.36 to 1 (vol:vol). The pit design on which the base case is modelled contains 27% Measured Resources 68% Indicated Resources and 5% Inferred Resources scheduled at the end of the 40 year mining life.

The current mining schedule was designed as a series of nested pits within the ultimate pit shell.

It has been determined that following geotechnical assessment and due to the nature of the mineralisation which consists of interlayered layers of Mn ore and clay/shale waste, that drill and Blast will not be required at Project. The Yanneri Ridge mineralisation will be mined by dozer ripping and extraction using conventional loaders to mine directly from the mining face into a mobile crusher. Where tramming distances become excessive, excavators will load haul-trucks which will transport ore to the crusher.

A contractor will be utilised for the mining operations, which will be overseen by Company management.

The key findings of the base case wall design parameter limits for all walls in the proposed Yanneri Ridge pit included:

• Face height 5m from surface to 5m depth;
• Face height 10m below 5m depth;
• Face angles 50° from surface to 15m depth;
• Face angles 60° below 15m depth;
• Berm width - 5m throughout.

The beneficiation process plant and other infrastructure have been designed in accordance with normal industry practice and the unit operations included in the flowsheet are well established within the resources and other industries.

The design philosophy has utilised predominantly mobile or semi-mobile equipment such that operating installation maintains a degree of flexibility for management of the advancing mining face, whilst minimising civils, structure and set-up investment costs. The proposed processing facility includes the following unit operations, throughput and operating assumptions:
• 1.3 Million tons per annum mining rate;
• Crushing;
• Screening;
• Scrubbing;
• Sizing;
• Ore Sorting.

Ore sorting was identified as a potential process to further upgrade the concentrate. Sorting tests have subsequently been conducted by Steinert Australia, utilising a full-scale 1m wide multiple sensor Steinert KSS sorter, on the two ........