Name: Dargues mine.

Location: The project is located in the southern tablelands of New South Wales, in Australia, about 60 km south-east of Canberra.

Mine Owner/s: Aurelia Metals.

Brief Description: Dargues Mine is a gold mining and milling operation. It comprises an underground mine, processing plant and associated surface facilities.

Mine access is through a boxcut and decline from the surface.

Brief History: Aurelia Metals completed the acquisition of the Dargues mine from Diversified Minerals in December 2020 for A$190-million, excluding a contingent payment of A$5 million. The acquisition comprised the Dargues mine, associated rural properties and regional exploration tenements.

The first concentrate shipment from Dargues was exported in June 2020.

Underground ore production is expected to ramp up to full capacity by mid-2021.

Primary Metals/Minerals: Gold concentrate free of deleterious elements.

Secondary Metals/Minerals: None stated.

Geology/Mineralisation: The Dargues reef forms part of the Majors Creek goldfields, the biggest historical alluvial goldfield in New South Wales.

The deposit is located within the Early Devonian Braidwood Granodiorite, in the eastern Lachlan Fold Belt that traverses eastern Australia from Tasmania to Queensland. It is described as a composite orogenic belt, which has been subjected to four occurrences of folding, strong compression and uplift.

Reserves: Total mineral reserves as at June 30,2020, were estimated at 1.11-million tonnes grading 5.7 g/t gold.

Resources: Total mineral resources as at March 15, 2017, were estimated at 1.59-million tonnes grading 6.8 g/t gold.

Mining Method: Ore is mined using conventional bottom-up longhole stoping and trucked from the underground mine to a surface stockpile adjacent to the process plant. Stope voids are backfilled with either cemented hydraulic fill or waste rock.

Major Infrastructure and Equipment: The Dargues infrastructure includes an access decline, a ventilation shaft, escape-way shaft and associated infrastructure such as a backfill distribution system, pumpstations and an electrical distribution system.

The 355 000 t/y process plant comprises a three-stage crushing circuit, ball mill and two-stage flotation circuit producing a clean gold-rich pyrite concentrate. Process tailings are used for cemented hydraulic fill or deposited in a lined storage facility.

Prospects: Aurelia has identified significant exploration upside potential at Dargues, with the existing mineral resource only constrained at depth by the location, quantity and density of drilling. There is also clear potential for extensions to the Dargues deposit along strike.

Contact Details:
Aurelia Metals
Tel +61 7 3180 5000
Email office@aureliametals.com.au
Website www.aureliametals.com.au