Forrestania’s camp of nickel sulphide deposits is hosted by a sequence of ~2.9Ga meta-igneous and metasedimentary rocks that are part of the Forrestania Greenstone Belt (FGB) of the Youanmi Terrane of the Eastern Yilgarn Craton.

Forrestania’s nickel deposits is the ‘Kambalda-style’ Type 1 and Type 2 models where nickel sulphides are interpreted to have accumulated in channelised komatiitic lava flows. Many of Forrestania’s deposits are often tectonically displaced from the original depositional locations and have been deformed and/or dismembered by one or more local and/or regional post-depositional tectonic events.

The main deposit type is the komatiite hosted, disseminated to massive nickel sulphide deposits, which include the Flying Fox and Spotted Quoll deposits. The mineralisation occurs in association with the basal section of high MgO cumulate ultramafic rocks.

The greenstone succession in the district also hosts several orogenic lode gold deposits, of which the Bounty Gold Mine is the largest example.

Flying Fox is hosted by a package of deformed metavolcanics and metasediments that have been intruded by granites. Locally, the geology comprises a strongly foliated succession of komatiites intercalated with metasediments, both of which are typical of the FGB’s Lower Sequence.

Post the primary deposition of the sulphide mineralisation in lava channels, one or more tectonic events have dismembered Flying Fox’s origi ........

The Flying Fox underground mine has been in operation since 2005 and the current inputs to its ORE are based on operating budgets, and as such the level of study is considered superior in precision to an FS. Flying Fox’s ORE is reported on a >0.8% Ni model cut-off grade, which approximates the break- even grade for processing.

The mining methods at Flying Fox are direct or modifications of the AVOCA mining method, where longhole stoping is used to extract the ore and the void is progressively filled with rock and/or cemented rock or paste fill, depending on local geotechnical conditions. The minimum mining width is 2.0m, with stopes typically 20m along the strike of the ore and from 8 to 17m high.

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