Aya Gold & Silver Inc.

Figure 16‑13 Modified Avoca Mining Method Illustration – Longitudinal Section

As shown in Figure 16-13, the longitudinal long-hole stopes will be mined in a retreating fashion towards the access drift. Within each mining panel a bottom-up stoping sequence will be used, with mining commencing on the lowest level of the panel and progressing upward, offset horizontally by three stopes. To initiate each level, a slot raise is drilled and blasted to form a void; subsequence blast hole rings are fired until planned length is achieved based on the rock mass condition of the footwall (FW) and hanging wall (HW). If the ground is competent, stope will be filled entirely of rockfill, the subsequent stope drilled and loaded, and a portion of the rockfill extracted to create a void for blasting. When there is excessive dilution in a panel, the stope will be filled with approximately 50% rockfill (RF) and 50% cemented rockfill (CRF) to offer more support.

The mining cycle of drilling, blasting, mucking and backfilling repeats until the entire level is mined out. The last level will be mined by drilling the blastholes upwards, removing the mineralized material beneath the sill that would have been backfilled with 100% cemented rock fill (CRF). Figure 16-14 illustrates the stope cycle for the proposed mining method.