Wiluna West Gold Project

Introduction

The Wiluna West Gold Project is located approximately 35 to 45 km south west of the township of Wiluna (Figure 1) and 750 km north east of Perth in the Northern Goldfields region of Western Australia. Access to the site is gained either via the partly sealed Wiluna – Meekatharra road (Goldfields Highway) or via the unsealed Wiluna – Sandstone road (Ullalla Road) accessed from the Goldfields Highway.

Figure 1: Wiluna West Gold Project Location Plan

Tenements

The Wiluna West Gold Project consists of 7 granted mining leases occupying a total area of 85.8 km2 as summarised in Table 1.

The mining leases are all held by GWR and are subject to a Deed of Co-operation between GWR and Wiluna West Gold. The reason the mining leases are held by GWR and not Wiluna West Gold is that each of the mining leases also form part of the Wiluna West Iron Project owned by GWR.

Aboriginal Heritage and Native Title

The project area is within the Determined Wiluna Native Title Claim which is administered by Tarlka Matuwa Piarku Aboriginal Corporation (TMPAC) and a Native Title Mining Agreement has been entered into.

Extensive Aboriginal Heritage surveys have been undertaken over the entire project area since 2006. The proposed footprint of the Golden Monarch deposit has been cleared for mining. Detailed surveys have also been undertaken at the Eagle and Emu Deposits.

Geological Setting

The Wiluna West Gold Project covers 25 km of strike over the Joyners Find Greenstone Belt (Figures 2 and 3). This belt of Archaean rocks is located on the northern margin of the Yilgarn Block 35km to the west of the northern part of the highly productive Norseman – Wiluna Greenstone Belt. To the north, Proterozoic sediments belonging to the Yerrida Basin overlie the northern end of the greenstone belt.

The Joyners Find Greenstone Belt is a narrow (5 to 10km) greenstone belt comprised of predominantly mafic to ultramafic schist, Banded Iron Formation (BIF) including local chert and jaspilite horizons and metasedimentary units. Granitic and doleritic rocks intrude the sequence, especially along the eastern margin of the belt. The stratigraphy trends north – south and converges in the southern part with bedding and foliation dip of between 60° to 80° to the west.

The eastern and central portions of the Joyners Greenstone Belt contain two large zones of intensely deformed and altered rocks which are intimately associated with the historical mine workings known gold deposits and many of the geochemical anomalies. The two large structural features are referred to as the Brilliant Shear Zone and Joyners Shear Zone. They traverse the entire length of the Wiluna West Gold Project area and are up to 0.5km and 1.5km wide respectively.

The Brilliant Shear Zone is interpreted to extend over a strike length of 16km containing sheared mafic to ultramafic units with occasional intrusions of differentiated dolerite sills and quartz-feldspar porphyry dykes. The Joyners Shear Zone occurs along both limbs of the Comedy Synform and extends along the entire Joyners Find Greenstone Belt for 50km. The shear has developed mainly within ductile mafic and ultramafic schists and contains several narrow, linear BIF units.

Figure 2: Wiluna West Gold Project Geology and Gold Deposits

Figure 3: Wiluna West Gold project air magnetics and gold prospects

Previous Exploration

Historical

The Joyners Find Greenstone belt has been prospected for gold since the early 1920’s with at least 20 locations showing historical gold workings. Past production exceeded 40,000 ounces at a grade of 10.4 g/t Au for the period 1912 to 1945, with the largest producers being Joyners Find and the Brilliant mines.

Post 1945 the area was largely unexplored until the start of the nickel boom when in 1966 Delhi Australia Petroleum Limited (Delhi) applied for a Temporary Reserve (TR3702H) which covered a large part of the Wiluna area, including the Wiluna West Gold Project area. Delhi later entered into a joint venture with Vam Limited and explored the area until 1970, but very little effective work was completed. Asarco (Australia) Pty Ltd also explored the area for nickel in 1973, conducting rock-chip sampling and geological mapping. Noranda Australia Ltd followed in 1980-81 with further geochemical sampling, costeaning, geophysical surveys, geological mapping and drilling. Electrolytic Zinc Company of Australia Ltd briefly explored the area during 1982 with limited geological mapping and geochemical sampling. Newmont Holdings Pty Ltd in Joint Venture with Jones Mining explored the area between 1982 and 1983 completing programs of geological mapping, geochemical sampling, geophysics and drilling of eleven percussion holes. General Gold NL drilled four RC holes after an RRMIP geophysical survey.

A joint venture comprising Noranda Australia Ltd., Teck Exploration Ltd and Sipa Resources Pty. Ltd (Sipa) completed a more substantial exploration program between 1984 and 1986. Sipa continued to explore the area in its own right until 1990 with a very broad program of work which included the drilling of 1,118 holes for a total of 31,691m which identified most of the known gold deposits within the Wiluna West Gold Project area.

From 1990 to 1999 minimal exploration was undertaken in part due to litigation which eventually resulted in the central portion of the project being acquired by Mr George Lee and Mr David Jones Roberts. During 1996 to 1998 Plutonic/Homestake carried out RC drilling programs totalling 13 holes for an aggregate of 1392m and 29 RAB holes for 1778m testing old workings. Both Croesus (1998) and Westgold Resources NL (1998-2000) completed small geochemical surveys around the periphery of the project area. Normandy Yandal Operations completed an airborne magnetic survey and drilled 10 RC holes totalling 761m during 2001.

Undertaken by GWR

Extensive work has been undertaken by GWR at the Wiluna West Gold Project since June 2005, much of this was in respect for iron ore however there is a high degree of overlap including:

• Detailed aerial magnetic survey with interpretation and targeting by Southern Geoscience;
• Flying of high quality air photography and photogrammetry;
• Compilation of previous gold exploration results including validating previous drilling results and conversion of historical local grid to MGA;
• Extensive environmental flora and surveys over the entire project largely as part of the Wiluna West Iron project but more recently at the Golden Monarch, Eagle and Emu deposits;
• Both surface and groundwater hydrological studies;
• Extensive Aboriginal Heritage Surveys for both ethnography and archaeology;
• A total of 7,766 surface geochemical soil samples have been collected including:
  • 5,383 samples screened to minus 3mm and analysed for Au (0.1ppb), As, Cu, Ni, Pb, Zn;
  • 2,053 samples screened to – 2.8mm + 0.5mm and analysed for Au (0.1ppb), As, Cu, Ni, Pb, Zn; and
  • 330 MMI samples screened to – 3mm;
• Detailed 1:2000 and 1:1000 scale geological mapping over gold target areas;
• Metallurgical testwork focusing on the Golden Monarch deposit;
• JORC 2004 and JORC 2012 Resource modelling;
• Pit optimisation studies at the Golden Monarch, Eagle and Emu deposits; and
• Geotechnical assessments for the Golden Monarch, Eagle and Emu deposits.

Summary of Drilling

A total of 1,928 drill holes for 70,483m have been completed by various operators since 1982 in the Wiluna West Gold Project area. 4931 holes for 325,072m have been completed in the entire Wiluna West project area many of these targeting iron ore. A summary is provided below and in Table 2:

• 1282 drill holes for 47,083m specifically targeting gold mineralisation and of these only 681 holes for 40,199m (53%) are greater than 20 m in depth;
• GWR has completed and assayed 322 drill holes for 18,427 m targeting gold mineralisation. With 96 of these holes for 5,000 m being aircore holes on a 400m by 40 m spacing; and
• GWR has also completed 926 drill holes for 79,920m targeting iron ore mineralisation within the Wiluna West Gold Project area. No Au assays were collected from 365 of these holes;

• RC: Reverse circulation
• RAB: Rotary Air Blast
• AC: Air-core
• PDH: Percussion drill hole (open hole)
• DDH: Diamond core drill hole

In addition, GWR has recently completed a drilling program on the Eagle and Emu prospects comprising 55 RC holes for an aggregate of 2145m for the purpose of following up previous high-grade intercepts to investigate continuity and infill drilling to increase confidence in the current JORC 2012 Resource. The Company will use the proceeds from the IPO to obtain assays from this program as soon as practical after completion of the Offer.

Gold Mineralisation

Since the commencement of modern exploration and in particular in the period up to 1990 more than 20 gold occurrences have been identified within the project area.

The vast majority of the gold mineralisation within the project area is related to the two major structural features, the Joyners Shear Zone and the Brilliant Shear Zone (Figure 2).
Auriferous mineralisation in the northern part of the tenements occurs either within or associated with the Brilliant Shear Zone. The gold generally occurs in narrow, steeply dipping quartz veins commonly accompanied by sericitic and pyritic alteration.

To the west paralleling the Brilliant Shear Zone is the north trending much wider Joyners Shear Zone. Mineralisation within this zone is associated with a major gently south plunging Comedy Synform, with gold occurring on both limbs of the Comedy fold. Most the important prospects and most of the abandoned gold workings in the Joyners Shear zone occur in a belt 500m wide defined by these structures.

Gold mineralisation is mostly very fine grained and occurs in three structural styles within the project area:

• Quartz reefs parallel to shear bands such as at Bronzewing, Bowerbird, Joyners Find, Brilliant, Bottom Camp, Wren, Quail Swan and Sparrow;
• BIF hosted replacement deposits such as at Emu, Eagle, Comedy King, Goldfinch, Hawk, Golden Monarch, Iron King; and
• Shear zone hosted along the contact with BIF such as at Butcherbird, Currawong and Goldfinch (mine).

Mineral Resource Estimate

In 2021 Optiro Pty Ltd completed a Mineral Resource estimate for the Wiluna West Gold Project, updating all JORC 2004 estimates to JORC 2012 status. The current combined JORC 2012 Mineral Resource estimate for the Wiluna West Gold project is summarised in Table 3 below.

Flora and Fauna Studies

Extensive environmental flora and fauna surveys have been undertaken throughout the project area since 2005 and these have been used to underpin approvals for both the iron ore and gold.

No threatened flora taxa, listed under the State Biodiversity Conservation Act 2016 (BC Act) and the Commonwealth Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (EPBC Act), have been identified at the Project. A number of Priority Flora species have been identified, these are mostly P3 and the presence of these plants has not impacted on any approvals to date.

Four Level 2 fauna surveys and numerous targeted searches have been completed at the Wiluna West area that also have encompassed the fauna habitats present within the Wiluna West Gold Project. Four fauna species of conservation significance have been recorded during survey work at Wiluna West to date:

• Malleefowl (Leiopoa ocellata);
• Brush-tailed Mulgara (Dasycercus cristicauda/blythii);
• Long-tailed Dunnart (Sminthopsis longicaudata); and
• Peregrine Falcon (Falcos peregrinus).

Only Malleefowl and the Long-tailed Dunnart are thought to be likely in the environment surrounding the gold project. No active Malleefowl mounds have been observed in the vicinity of any of the known gold prospects, one occurrence of a Long-tailed Dunnart was noted near Eagle- Emu prospects from an earlier survey but was not found in a survey undertaken in the same vicinity in 2019. An EPBC Act referral in respect to Malleefowl at C4, Eagle and Emu was lodged in June 2020 with the federal government (Department of Agriculture, Environment and Water) and in August 2020 this was confirmed as not a controlled action and does not require further assessment under the EPBC Act.

A number of short range endemic and subterranean fauna surveys have been undertaken within the Wiluna West project area and no species of conservation significance were identified.

Mining Studies

Mining studies have been undertaken on the Golden Monarch, Eagle and Emu deposits, with the following being completed:

• Geotechnical assessment of pit wall stabilities to assist in open pit designs by independent consultants Peter O’Bryan & Associates;
• Preliminary pit designs and optimisations by independent mining engineering consultants Intermine Engineering;
• Metallurgical testwork was undertaken on the Golden Monarch deposit by Nagrom and supervised by metallurgical consultants Metflow. This work included:
  • Bond work index;
  • Multi-element analysis;
  • Semi-quantitative XRD analysis;
  • Gravity recoverable gold;
  • Bottle roll cyanidation including CIL test; and
  • Cyanide and lime consumption,

The results of the testwork were in-line with expectations with no deleterious elements detected, 20% of Au was gravity recoverable and overall recovery of 92.2% achieved.

Mining Approvals

Mining approval is in place for the Golden Monarch gold deposits and approvals are pending for the Eagle and Emu deposits.

A mining approval for the Golden Monarch gold deposit was granted on 27 September 2019 (REG ID 81143) and a further approval was granted on 17 April 2020 (REG ID 85636). A clearing permit for Golden Monarch was granted in March 2011 (CPS 4006_1) and amended in April 2016 (CPS 4006_2) and again in July 2019 (CPS 4006_3). An amendment to the Mining Proposal is required to move the waste dump closer to the proposed pit.

A Mining Proposal was lodged for the Eagle and Emu deposits in May 2020 (REG ID 87266). This has been on hold since September 2020 pending a response to queries from DMIRS, which was submitted to DMIRS in May 2021. A clearing permit (CPS 6726_2) was granted on 30 July 2020.

A haul road potentially linking most of the gold deposits within the Joyners Shear zone has been approved as part of the approvals obtained by GWR for the Wiluna West Iron Project.

Exploration Potential & Targeting

There remains significant potential to expand the Company’s Resource inventory by following up known deposits and by greenfields exploration targeting the 25 km of strike held over the Joyners Find Greenstone belt where significant relatively untested targets are present.

Western Gold has identified the Golden Monarch, Eagle, Emu and Gold King deposits as priority targets for providing an opportunity to increase Mineral Resources and also confidence in the current Mineral Resource estimate, with all deposits remaining open at depth and some open along strike. Detailed information in relation to these deposits is set out below. The Company also intends to use funds raised from the Offer to carry out aircore exploration drill programs at the Comedy King and Brilliant prospects, which both have Inferred Resources as set out in Table 3.

Golden Monarch

As set out in Table 3 above the Golden Monarch deposit currently has a combined JORC 2012 Mineral Resource Estimate of 800,000 t @ 2.2 g/t Au for 55,000 oz Au, comprising 30,000 t @ 3.0 g/t Au for 3,000 oz Au Measured, 380,000 t @ 2.1 g/t Au for 30,000 oz Au Indicated and 390,000 t @ 2.1 g/t Au for 30,000 oz Au Inferred.

Mining approvals including a Mining Proposal and Clearing permit are all in place as are Aboriginal Heritage surveys.

Gold mineralisation is hosted by a highly altered BIF horizon, which is developed on the contact between mafic and ultramafic rocks and is weathered to depths of approximately 80 m and appears as a highly distinctive bedded goethite limonite rock. Significant historical intersections include:

• 9m @ 9.4g/t Au from 28m, including 1m @ 72.0g/t Au in WGRC0054
• 7m @ 11.8g/t Au from 36m, including 1m @ 72.3g/t Au in WGRC0061
• 7m @ 8.3g/t Au from 18m, including 1m @ 38.1g/t Au in WGRC0073
• 3m @ 20.77 g/t Au from 38m, including 1 m 54.3 g/t Au in JRC153
• 13m @ 3.57 g/t Au from 83m in WWRC056
• 10m @ 3.62 g/t Au from 51m in WWRC060
• 10m @ 2.95 g/t Au from 70m in JFRC08
• 6m @ 4.93g/t Au from 71m in JFRC01

The Golden Monarch deposit is completely open at depth with > 75% of near surface mineralisation at a JORC 2012 Measured or Indicated status. Funds raised from the Offer will be used to evaluate and test targets at depth.

Eagle

The Eagle deposit is 4 km north of the Golden Monarch deposit on the same structure. As set out in Table 3 above it has a combined JORC 2012 Mineral Resource estimate of 790,000t @ 1.8 g/t Au for 45,000 oz Au, comprising 110,000t @2.8 g/t Au for 10,000 oz Au Indicated and 680,000t @ 1.6 g/t Au for 35,000 oz Au Inferred.

The Eagle deposit remains open at depth and along strike to the north. Previous significant intercepts include:

• 16 m @ 9.3 g/t Au from 25 m including 3 m @ 38.5 g/t Au in WWRC0020
• 14 m @ 4.9 g/t Au from 23 m including 1 m @ 20.0 g/t Au and 1 m @ 24.9 g/t Au in WWRC0068
• 5 m @ 10.9 g/t Au from 15 m including 2 m @ 26.2 g/t Au in WWRC0069
• 5 m @ 6.7 g/t Au from 49 m including 1 m @ 24.5 g/t Au in WWRC0070
• 6 m @ 7.3 g/t Au from 28 m including 1 m @ 25.7 g/t Au in WWRC0076
• 5 m @ 9.7 g/t Ay from 54 m including 2 m @ 21.8 g/t Au in WGRC0114

Funds raised from the Offer will be used to undertake further infill and extensional RC drilling aimed at expanding the current Mineral Resource estimate and converting Resources from Inferred to Indicated status.

Emu

The Emu deposit is 1.5 km north of the Eagle deposit and 4.9 km north of Golden Monarch and is upon the same structure. As set out in Table 3 above it has an Inferred JORC 2012 Mineral Resource estimate of 600,000t @ 2.3 g/t Au for 42,000 oz Au. The current RC drill hole spacing is approximately 40 m by 20 m and infill drilling is required to increase confidence in the Mineral Resource estimate.

Previous significant intercepts include:

• 6 m @ 3.9 g/t Au from 88 m including 1 m @ 15.2 g/t Au in JFRC04
• 10 m @ 2.1 g/t Au from 26 m in JF271
• 5 m @ 15.0 g/t Au from 45 m including 1 m @ 69.4 g/t Au in WGRC0092
• 12 m @ 7.3 g/t Au from 48 m including 3 m @ 25.3 g/t Au in WGRC0093
• 8 m @ 11.1 g/t Au from 53 m including 3 m @ 25.0 g/t Au in WGRC0101

Funds raised from the Offer will be used to undertake further infill and extensional RC drilling aimed at expanding the current Mineral Resource estimate and converting Resources from Inferred to Indicated status.

Emu

The Gold King deposit is approximately 800 m south of Golden Monarch and is on the same structure. As set out in Table 3 above it has an Inferred JORC 2012 Mineral Resource estimate of 580,000t @ 1.9 g/t Au for 36,000 oz Au. The deposit has previously been tested on an approximate 40 m by 20 m spacing and it has been assessed as the next best advanced target, significant intercepts include:

• 6m @ 2.3 g/t Au from 34 m in JF006
• 9m @ 3.0 g/t Au from 38 m in JF111
• 11m @ 1.7 g/t Au from 47 m in JF177
• 4m @ 3.8g/t Au from 33m in JF32
• 5m @ 6.2 g/t Au from 33 m in JF243
• 10m @ 4.6 g/t Au from 29 m in WGRC010
• 11m @ 3.3 g/t Au from 39 m in WGRC022

Funds raised from the Offer will be used to undertake further infill drilling.

Processing Facilities

The Board believes there is potential to bring the deposits at the Wiluna West Gold Project into production. If the Company is able to secure access to third party processing facilities within trucking distance of the deposits, the capital cost saving will reduce the threshold for bringing the deposits into Reserve category, allowing more Resources to convert to Reserves and allowing production to be achieved sooner than would be the case if a standalone processing facility had to be commissioned.

JORC Code Competent Person Statement

The information in this project summary that relates to Exploration Results is based on information compiled by Mr Allen Maynard, who is a Member of the Australian Institute of Geosciences (AIG) a Corporate Member of the AusIMM and independent consultant to the Company. Mr Maynard is the Director and principal geologist of Al Maynard & Associates Pty Ltd and has over 40 continuous years of exploration and mining experience in a variety of mineral deposit styles. Mr Maynard has sufficient experience which is relevant to the style of mineralisation and type of deposit under consideration and to the activity which he is undertaking to qualify as a Competent Person as defined in the 2012 Edition of the ’Australasian Code for reporting of Exploration Results, Mineral Resources and Ore Reserves’ (JORC Code). Mr Maynard consents to inclusion in the project summary of the matters based on this information in the form and context in which it appears.

The information in the project summary that relates to the updated and maiden geostatistical modelling of Mineral Resources for the Wiluna West Gold Project is based on, and fairly represents, information and supporting documentation prepared by Paul Blackney, a Competent Person who is a Member of the Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy. Mr Blackney is a full-time employee of Optiro Pty Ltd. Mr Blackney has sufficient experience that is relevant to the style of mineralisation and type of deposit under consideration and to the activity being undertaken to qualify as a Competent Person as defined in the JORC Code. Mr Blackney consents to the inclusion in the project summary.