The processing strategy for the Wawa Gold Project relies on off-site toll milling at three existing regional facilities, with on-site crushing and sampling as the only proposed new infrastructure.
Report context
This Preliminary Economic Assessment (PEA) technical report for the Wawa Gold Project is dated March 2026. The report presents a processing approach based on metallurgical test work described in Section 13 and the mine plan in Section 16. The project targets the RPX deposit and considers three existing ore processing facilities within 150 km trucking distance.
Processing route
Proposed overall flowsheet
The proposed flowsheet includes an open pit and an underground mine, with all material trucked to surface and stored in a run-of-mine (ROM) stockpile. The flowsheet required to process mineralized material from the ROM stockpile would be a conventional whole-of-ore cyanidation processing facility for gold recovery and doré bar production. For this PEA, all crushed material will be transported by haul truck to a selected off-site toll milling facility.
The construction of a new fit-for-purpose gold processing facility is an option for RPX but was not considered for this PEA. Test work and additional studies to determine the viability of a standalone processing facility will be considered during the next study phase. If considered, a new plant would operate on a 24-hour-per-day basis with design incorporating crushing, screening, grinding, cyanide leaching, and cyanide destruction prior to tailings storage.
On-site crushing and sampling
Haul trucks will transport material from the open pits and underground mines to the ROM stockpile area. Under normal operating conditions, trucks will discharge directly onto the ROM pad, which will be used primarily for short-term or emergency storage and material blending. Material will later be reclaimed with a front-end loader to a single-stage crushing and screening area to produce a final crushed product of minus 150 mm (6-inch) material.
Crushing operations are currently envisioned as a single-stage circuit comprising a primary jaw crusher and screen. The portable equipment, including a transfer belt conveyor, will be independently powered via diesel drives. The portable crusher and oversized screen are designed to produce 2,000 tonnes per day production via an independent contractor.
The mine site will incorporate a sampling operation such as a sampler tower to assist in metallurgical accounting. Material from the crusher will be screened and conveyed or fed to the sample tower. A fully integrated crushing and sampling system will be designed to deliver representative daily composite samples for assay and metallurgical accounting. Material not collected for composite sampling will be conveyed to the crushed material stockpile for further processing.
Off-site toll milling facilities
The plan for the current PEA study is to transport crushed material by highway truck from the mine site to a final toll treatment processing facility. The material stockpile at the mine site is sufficient to allow for normal crushing operation during shutdown periods and short-term production interruptions. Three operating processing plants within 150 km distance from the mine could be accessed for material processing. The selected off-site toll milling facilities currently operate conventional gravity-leach-CIP flowsheets with downstream gold doré recovery.
Alamos Island Gold Kremzar: The Kremzar Plant is the closest mill via public highway to the Wawa Gold Mine, at approximately 75 km total distance. Underground ore from Island Gold is currently being processed within the 1,200 tpd Kremzar mill, with the remaining ore processed through the Magino mill. Expansion plans to 2,400 tpd have been stopped by Alamos after the recent acquisition of the new Magino Mine/Mill. The Kremzar mill is expected to be decommissioned this year as part of a strategic consolidation with the nearby Magino mill.
Alamos Magino: The Magino gold deposit is an open pit mine with ore extracted by conventional open-pit methods. Mine operations commenced in the first quarter of 2021, and commercial production was declared on November 2, 2023. The processing plant was initially designed at a throughput of 10,000 tonnes of ore per day utilizing primary crushing, single-stage semi-autogenous grinding, a gravity recovery circuit, cyanide leach, and a carbon-in-pulp adsorption circuit. The Magino mill is the second closest processing plant, at approximately 85 km total distance. The mill is currently being optimized to a processing rate of 11,200 tpd, and a further expansion to 12,400 tpd is expected to be completed in 2026.
Hemlo Mining Company: The Williams Mill is located approximately 150 km total distance from the proposed mine site. The flowsheet consists of crushing, grinding, gravity concentration (not currently in use), cyanide leaching, carbon-in-pulp (CIP), carbon stripping, electrowinning, acid wash, reactivation, and refining. The mill has two parallel grinding circuits, each consisting of a semi-autogenous grinding (SAG) mill, a ball mill, and a Knelson concentrator for gravity gold recovery. Knelson concentrates are upgraded on a gold table to produce a gravity concentrate. Grinding is followed by thickening, aeration, and cyanide leaching. Gold is extracted from the leach slurry using the CIP process followed by carbon stripping and gold electrowinning. Carbon is reactivated through acid washing followed by thermal regeneration in a kiln. The electrowinning cell sludge and gravity circuit concentrate are refined on site by conventional mercury retorting and smelting in an electrical induction furnace to produce doré bullion.
Reagents and consumables
To minimize scale build-up in recycle water lines, anti-scale chemical will be added as needed, supplied in liquid form and metered directly into the intake of water pumps. No other reagents are required for the current operations. Major consumables will include screen decks and jaw crusher liners, which require periodic replacement. Additional consumables include belts, filter cloths, and laboratory supplies. Maintenance spares for crushing, screening, conveying, and assaying equipment will also be provisioned.
Metallurgical accounting
Based on a toll milling agreement, final metallurgical accounting will be agreed to by the miner and the toll milling parties. An assay laboratory at the mine site in a designated building will provide all routine assays for mine production and reconciling production of material shipped to a local gold processing plant. If required, the on-site lab can also be used for environmental and geological department monitoring. The complete lab main instruments will include equipment necessary for fire assay and shaker tests.
Key reported parameters
| Description | Unit | Value | Basis |
|---|---|---|---|
| Open Pit and Underground Mining Schedule | |||
| Shifts per day | — | 2 | Design |
| Mine hours per shift | h | 12 | Design |
| Days per year | days | 365 | Design |
| ROM per day | t | 2,000 | Design |
| ROM stockpile | days | 4 | Design |
| Crushing and Stockpile | |||
| Crushing shifts per day | — | 1 | Design |
| Crushing hours per shift | h | 10 | Design |
| Crushing rate | t/h | 240 | Design |
| Loading and Off-site Trucking | |||
| Trucking shifts per day | — | 1 | Design |
| Trucked material per day | t | 2,000 | Design |
| Hours per shift | h | 10 | Design |
| Loads | t | 40 | Design |
| Truck loads per day | — | 50 | Design |
| Toll Milling Plant Feed | |||
| Material to mill / plant throughput | tpd | 2,000 | Design |
| Open pit mill feed | Mt | 2.1 | Mine plan |
| Underground mill feed | Mt | 4.5 | Mine plan |
| Total plant feed (LOM) | Mt | 6.6 | Mine plan |
| Average gold grade (LOM) | g/t | 3.2 | Mine plan |
| Gold recovery | % | 88.0 | Testwork basis |
| Average gold grade open pits (Years 1–3) | g/t Au | 2.4 | Mine plan |
| Average gold grade underground (Years 3–9) | g/t Au | 3.6 | Mine plan |
| Average annual production open pits | oz Au | 48,000 | Mine plan (from 700,000 t/y) |
| Average annual production underground | oz Au | 74,000 | Mine plan (from 730,000 t/y) |
Project website: https://www.rpxgold.com/projects/wawa-gold-project/
Technical qualifications
The metallurgical test work detailed in Section 13, together with the mine plan described in Section 16, form the basis for the recovery methods selected for the Project. It is expected that each of the selected off-site toll milling facilities could process the Wawa deposit without modifications or capital expenditure. The utilization of existing facilities should result in overall gold recovery levels comparable to the results achieved from the metallurgical test work programs described in Section 13.
The construction of a new fit-for-purpose gold processing facility is an option for RPX but would entail additional study work and cost estimation analysis. For the purposes of this PEA, the construction of a processing facility was not considered. Test work and additional studies to determine the viability of a standalone processing facility will be considered during the next study phase.
The Kremzar mill is expected to be decommissioned this year as part of a strategic consolidation with the nearby Magino mill.
Source: Wawa Gold Project , 2026 Technical Report (PEA), March 2026, DRA Ref.: G10129-0000-PM-REP-0010-Rev. 0 – FINAL, Section 17 Recovery Methods.
