The Project property is located within the East Kootenay Coalfields and forms part of the Rocky Mountain Foothills structural belt, which lies to the east of the Canadian Rocky Mountain Trench.

Coal seams are found throughout the formation, although the thicker seams occur lower in the section. The formation contains from 4 to over 30 seams, which make up from 8% to 12% of the thickness of the formation. Cumulative coal thickness ranges up to over 70 m. The area has experienced moderate to intense folding and thrust faulting, which has caused repetitions and structural thickening of seams.

The East Kootenay Coalfields lie in the Front Ranges of the Rocky Mountains, which are characterized by north-to-northwest trending concentric folds and west-dipping thrust faults. Tertiary normal faults, some of which are listric and probably occupy earlier thrust surfaces, arealso a major feature.

The Crowsnest coalfield is a complex synclinorium in the Lewis thrust sheet. The major compressional features of the basin are the synclines linked by low-amplitude anticlines. A series of west-dipping thrust faults dominates the structure of the north half of the basin. The major extensional feature is the Erickson fault system, which juxtaposes Mississippian limestone and the Kootenay Group. The fault has a minimum, west side-down, displacement of 1,200 m.

Three formations are recognized within the Kootenay Group, including the basal sandstone Morr ........

At this stage of the Project, the conceptual mine plan is to utilize open-pit bench mining methods in distinct phases. The phases are being planned to maximize waste rock management within the pit. In this method of mining, coal seams are exposed by track dozers and hydraulic excavators removing waste rock. A drill and blast program is employed to loosen and fracture waste rock to provide a particle size distribution and looseness in the mineable material, suitable for high-efficiency working by the shovel and haul truck fleet. Waste rock is initially removed from the pit in haul trucks and placed external to the mining area. Once pit capacity has been created after initial mining, waste rock will be placed in pit as backfill, as far as operations allow, although some ex-pit waste storage may still be required in later stages of the mining. All mining benches will be accessed by cut ramps developed prior to bench mining in each phase. Where possible, the cut ramps are laid out within the overall pit limits, in order to minimize external pit excavations.

Breaks between pits and pit sequencing are based on material movement requirements, developing backfill opportunity, accessing requirements and coal blend requirements. As a result, the development sequence has primarily been driven to maximize backfill opportunity, while meeting operational requirements. Once initial mining areas are fully extracted, backfill opportunities are utilized to balance waste rock movemen ........

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