The Renard kimberlites were emplaced into granitic and gneissic host rocks, and contain diamonds of economic interest. The bodies comprise a late Neo-Proterozoic to Cambrian kimberlite field in Québec (Girard, 2001; Moorhead et al., 2002; Letendre et al., 2003).

To date, nine kimberlite pipes have been identified over a 2 km2 area in the Renard Cluster (Renard 1 to Renard 10; with Renard 5 and Renard 6 forming one body, referred to as Renard 65). The kimberlite pipes are typically spaced between 50 m and 500 m from each other. Geophysical data and drill information from delineation and bulk sampling programs indicate that, in general, most of the Renard kimberlites are irregular and elliptical in plan view. Surface areas of the kimberlite portion of the pipes range from 0.1 ha to 2.0 ha. Two laterally extensive kimberlite dyke systems, known as the Lynx and Hibou dykes, have been identified to the west and northwest of the pipe cluster, respectively (Figure 7.3). Portions of both dykes are included in the mineral resource estimation. Additional dyke like kimberlites have been discovered elsewhere on the property. These are not included in the mineral resource estimation but may warrant additional work at a later date.

A mine plan has been developed to extract the Indicated Mineral Resources of the Renard Project. The Renard 2 and Renard 3 kimberlite pipes will be mined through a combination of open pit and underground mining methods, whereas the Renard 65 kimberlite pipe will be mined by open pit mining method only and the Renard 4 pipe will be mined by underground method only. Open pit and underground Mineral Reserves were estimated independently based on criteria specific to each method.

The Renard 2 and Renard 3 open pit excavations result in a single pit at surface with two pit bottoms centered on the respective orebodies. The excavation is therefore treated as a single pit and is referred to as the R2/R3 OP.

The underground mine will be developed while mining the R2/R3 OP, and following its depletion, the underground mine will be extended to surface through the pit floor.

Waste rock from the open pit will be placed into the Renard 2 and Renard 3 underground stopes via the open pit to provide support for the stope walls during mining. Waste Waste material to support the Renard 4 underground stopes will be backfilled through backfill raises from surface.

Four underground mining methods were shortlisted and evaluated, including blasthole shrinkage (BHS), sublevel retreat (SLR), long hole panel mining with backfill (LHP), and blasthole shrinkage with pillars (BHSP). Based on this study, the blasthole shrinkage (BHS) mining method was selected ........

The process plant design capacity is 2,160,000 tpa (dry solids basis). The plant overall utilization is estimated to be 78%, equivalent to an operating time of 6,833 hours per year or 315 tph and 6,000 tpd. Stornoway expects to increase the plant throughput to 323 tph, already within initial plant equipment capacity, and increase the plant availability to 83.5% by optimizing plant maintenance sequences. Once the plant achieves sustainable nameplate throughput, further optimization work will be conducted focusing on liberation, diamond breakage and increasing the overall plant utilization. The ore processing system will liberate, concentrate and recover diamonds from 45 mm to 1mm. Taking the above into consideration by July 2018, Stornoway expects the plant will operate at a throughput of 7,000tpd at an overall plant utilization of 83,5%.

The ore processing system will liberate, concentrate and recover diamonds from 45 mm to 1mm.

Once the plant achieves sustainable ........