| PROJECTS

Bendigo-Ophir,
New Zealand

Bendigo-Ophir covers 251 square kilometres (“the Project Area”) in the Central Otago goldfields, 90 kilometres northwest of Oceana Gold’s world-class Macraes gold mine where previous production and Mineral Resource total in excess of 8 million ounces gold.

Bendigo-Ophir
Mineral Resources

The project contains a new Mineral Resource Estimate (MRE2024) of 2.45Moz gold @ 2.0g/t (0.5g/t Au lower cut-off grade with top-cut), an estimate based on drill results to January 2024 and reported in February 2024.

The Bendigo-Ophir resources occur in 4 deposits that extend in a northerly direction within the RSSZ which hosts gold mineralization over a recognised strike length of >20km.

The RSSZ occurs at the contact with TZ3 and TZ4 schist units separated by a regional fault (Thomsons Gorge Fault-TGF) and dips at a low angle (25°) to the north-east. The RSSZ is currently interpreted to have upper shear hosted gold mineralization (HWS) 10-40 metres in width above quartz vein and stockwork related gold mineralization extending >120 metres below the HWS which is largely untested down-plunge and at depth.

The Company embarked on diamond drilling (DD) and reverse circulation (RC) drilling programmes in November 2020 with the immediate objective to increase the existing resources by drill testing the down plunge extensions of known mineralisation.

Rise and Shine (RAS)

The Rise and Shine or RAS deposit was estimated from drilling collared in the RAS Valley and totalled 18,000 oz @ 1.2 g/t (no cutoff, no top cut), when acquired by Santana in late 2020. The northerly mineralisation trends that were being developed across the RSSZ lead to diamond drilling of the RAS Ridge some +100m above the RAS Valley, and in April 2021, MDD007 or the “James Bond” hole, intersected 40.3m @ 2.05g/t and visible gold (at 0.5g/t Au cutoff with 100g/t top cut). This discovery has continued to deliver with upgrades in Mineral Resource Estimates (at cutoff grade of 0.5 g/t Au with top cut) from 260koz @ 1.9g/t Au in September 2021, to currently 2.2Moz @ 2.2g/t Au in February 2024. Infill drilling of this deposit focused on converting inferred resources to indicated to support the upcoming scoping prefeasibility study. The indicated resources at RAS are currently 1.3Moz @ 2.4g/t Au.

Exploration Potential

Santana considers the Bendigo-Ophir Project to be substantially under-explored by modern exploration techniques. The Company sees the Project Area as having significant exploration upside and the potential to materially add to the existing Mineral Resources by testing several un-drilled exploration targets identified within the Project Area . These exploration targets leverage off previous geochemical sampling programs (including soil sampling and portable XRF data collection) that have highlighted a strong relationship between arsenic anomalism and gold mineralisation.

Within the immediate Rise and Shine Shear Zone, a number of targets have been identified outside of the JORC defined resources, through a combination of arsenic soil anomalies and in some cases followup RC drilling. These include the historic Bendigo Reefs (BDR), Alta (ALT), Perrys Creek (PCK), Mount Moka (MKA), Thomsons Saddle (TSD) and Upper Thomsons (UTS). Further geochemical sampling programs and target definition drilling campaigns are planned.

Regional geochemical targets include Orkney, Dans, and Matakanui (concealed below cover) in the south of the project area, which display anomalous arsenic results and warrant further exploration. No drilling has been undertaken at Orkney or Dans Prospect, with only shallow drilling defining alluvial gold mineralisation undertaken previously at Matakanui, with the primary gold source of this mineralisation un-defined.