The total resource potentially amenable to mining considered in the open-pit mine plan allows for the recovery of 1.67 M ounces of gold. The mining plan produced by InnovExplo includes 19.3 MT of mineralized material at an average grade of 1.88 g/t of gold, the stockpiling and milling of 18.2 MT of mineralized material at an average grade of 0.86 g/t of gold and the excavation and milling of 4.1 MT of tailings at a grade of 0.94 g/t of gold, in an optimized mining schedule that will extend over 16 years. The first 10 years will mostly involve open pit mining and milling of ROM. The last 6 years will only involve milling of accumulated stockpiles and of the tailings.
The mining schedule will require the removal of 37.5 million tonnes of mineralized material and 207.3 million tonnes of waste rock, resulting in a LOM strip ratio of 5.52 to 1. The overburden consists of 14.8 Mt, and will be put aside for reclamation work. Accounting for the overburden, the LOM strip ratio is 5.92 to 1.
Conventional open pit mining methods will be used, requiring a fleet of 136 tonne capacity off-road haul trucks, hydraulic excavators (16.5 m3), production drills and various ancillary equipment. Mine operations were designed to support an average daily production rate of 70,000 tonnes, including overburden.
The pits were designed with a double benching arrangement, and include an 8.5 meter geotechnical safety berm at every 20 meters in vertical height. Based on preliminary geotechnical review of the core, the recommended inter-ramp pit slope will average 52 degrees.
New NI 43-101 Resources estimate for the Duparquet Project:
A new resources estimate was prepared by InnovExplo and is included in the PEA report. The block model was prepared by using 3D block modelling and inverse distance squared interpolation method. A total of 35 new 2012 drill holes, 8 existing drill holes that have been extended to depth, a series of 47 "re-sampled" holes and 35 pre-2008 drill holes were added into the previously compiled and verified master database used in the NI 43-101 mineral resources estimate of July 2012. The updated master resource database currently has a total of 739 diamond drill holes, accounting for a total of 231,355 meters of drilling in length with 147,400 sample intervals. It also includes 2,371 samples coming from 892 surface channel samples, equivalent to 1,827 meters. The database includes the drilling and assay results up to the cut-off date of September 2012. The purpose of the 2012 drilling was mainly to increase the continuity and quality of the resources between surface and 350 meters depth. InnovExplo states that excellent potential exists to further increase the resources of the mineralized zones towards the east and at depth by drilling.
InnovExplo has estimated the total resources for the Duparquet Project(1) as follow:
-- The overall Measured and Indicated resources total 46,091,600 t at a grade of 1.62g/t for 2,404,924 contained ounces of gold. This is a 40% increase for the category, compared to the NI 43-101 report of July 2012. The overall Inferred Resources total 32,146,300 t at a grade of 1.43g/t, for 1,477,164 ounces of gold.-- The In-Pit resources in the Measured and Indicated category are 38,020,200 t at a grade of 1.59 g/t, for 1,943,027 contained gold ounces. In the Inferred category, they are 26,739,600 t at a grade of 1.15 g/t, for 991,494 contained gold ounces.-- Underground resources in the Measured and Indicated categories are 3,946,800 t at a grade of 2.66 g/t, for 337,403 contained gold ounces. In the Inferred category the total is 5,406,700 t at a grade of 2.79 g/t, for 485,670 contained gold ounces.-- Tailings total 4,124,600 t at a grade of 0.94 g/t, all in the Measured and Indicated categories, for 124,495 contained gold ounces.(1) Please see the following table for the cut-off grade assumptions.
