The project area is underlain by weathered granitoid Archaean rock of the Yilgarn Granites is the likely parent material for the kaolin. Here, deep weathering of the feldspathic and ferromagnesian minerals within the metamorphosed granitic has resulted in the formation of kaolinite. There is no outcrop but recognizable granitoid fragmental rocks are sometimes present just below surface. The crust of the overburden comprises gravel and sands over reddish to off-white clay. White kaolin underlies the overburden followed by weathered, partial oxidized and then fresh granitoids at depth.

The recent drilling at the property has revealed a weathering profile which is very common in Western Australia with the granitoid rocks, deeply weathered forming a leached, kaolinized zone under a lateritic crust. Analysis at the Laboratory shows particle size distributions are typical of “primary style” kaolin clays produced from weathered granites. The crust of overburden comprises gravel and sands over reddish to off-white clay to an average depth of 5 m. White kaolin then averages approximately 16 m before orange to yellow sandy and mottled clays are intersected which are followed by recognisable rounded granitoid material. The thickness of the kaolin profile varies from less than 1 m to a maximum of 22 m. Fresh granitoids are found at depths of between 10 m and 30 m. All kaolin resources are within 4 m to 11 m of the surface.

The upper low K2O zone (K2OCD= 1) is genera ........

Conventional open pit mining is adopted due to the shallow depth of the orebody and is suitable for free digging and hard ripping (i.e. no drilling and blasting). Backfilling will minimise the disturbance footprint of the small operation and the environmental impact. The adopted mining method has the following steps:

• overburden is excavated with trucks and an excavator until the top of the orebody is exposed, with some areas potentially requiring hard ripping;
• the exposed ore is mined with trucks and an excavator then hauled either directly to mill or a Run of Mine (ROM) stockpile for future processing;
• overburden and rejects are placed back into the previously excavated sections of the pit as soon as they become available for backfilling. (i.e. have enough stand off from the mining face and are completely exposed at the bottom).

The primary Cadoux site layout mine design was based on the optimal production pit-shell. The mine scheduling design and the size of the anticipated mining fleet with considerations for:

• minimum mining width;
• bench height;
• berm and batter configuration;
• haul road width;
• backfilling;
• sizing of mining fleet; and
• operational flexibility.

Where sensible, the bench height is 5m. Near the bottom of the pit, the bench height was reduced to 1 m to be able to selectively mine the ore along the ore/waste boundary. The 5 m wide berms were designed every 2 ben ........

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