Oakover is situated in the Collier Basin near the edge of the Pilbara Craton. A major portion of the tenement is covered by Quaternary cover with some calcrete along drainages. Several outcrops of the Middle Proterozoic Bangemall Group (Manganese subgroup), including various sediments of the Balfour Formation, Jigalong Formation and the Stag Arrow Formation are found on E52/3577 (Rohde, 2010).

The manganese mineralisation occurs as multiple seams or bands of varying thickness within a highly weathered shale (Balfour Formation). The mineralisation was generally found to be shallow (mostly within 20 m of the surface), gently dipping and laterally extensive across the target area. The lateritic profile and subsequent manganese mineralisation show the zonation within the regolith and distribution of manganese mineralisation. The higher-grade (or nearer-surface supergene/lateritic) manganese material is generally located within the upper portion of the regolith profile at shallow depths (0–15 m).

The recommended mining method is conventional open cut mining using truck and shovel, to focus on the two current economical rock domains, without sterilising the potentially economic Manganiferous Shale rock domain.

This very common method allows better targeting of the highest-grade and specific rock types, depending on processing plant throughput requirements and customer contract specifications.

The Scoping Study has demonstrated the Project is economically viable, with 9.2 million tonnes of 30% Manganese product generated over a 10-year life of mine. The optimised shell captured 100% of the modelled Supergene material above an 8% Mn cut off and 91% of the Massive Manganese material. This is due to the shallow ore body, thin overburden on top of the ore and persistent grade throughout the mineralised zone.

The generated phases have the Indicated Resource of Sixty Sixer pit mined first, followed by Inferred Resources.

A mining rate of between approximately 6.3 to 11.3 million tonnes per annum (mtpa) will provide the required feed for the proposed processing plant capacity, with a stockpile of no greater than 0.35 million tonnes when looking at yearly periods.

Indicated material accounts for 73% of the ore processed, approximately 30.5 million tonnes, with Inferred making up the remaining 27%. The Company assumes that due to expected ground conditions and near surface geology, approximate 50% of mining will require drill and blast.

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