Open pit autonomous hauling & drilling a first in Ontario

and drilling – meaning driverless trucks and driverless drills – complimented by manned loading and support equipment:

• Epiroc Pit Viper 231 autonomous blasthole drill rigs will be deployed and able to move between holes on a pattern autonomously, improving safety and productivity.

• Loading will be done by two electric CAT6060 hydraulic shovels which are connected to the grid by a tethered cable, supported by a fleet of CAT 994 front-end loaders.

• Hauling will be performed autonomously by a fleet of up to 23 CAT793F trucks, monitored by operators in the AHS control room at the camp. Autonomous haul trucks provide significant efficiency gains with increased availability, reduced maintenance costs, and provide detailed operating data for further analysis and refinement.

A major milestone was achieved this year with the first deployment of the autonomous trucks in January. Autonomous trucks utilize radar and high precision GPS guidance systems which can pinpoint the location of any part of the truck to within 4 centimeters. The loader operator, once ready, presses a button to call the autonomous truck to them, and the truck will drive itself to the exact spot required before moving the material to the appropriate destination (ore versus waste). To ensure the autonomous vehicles operate to plan, the project has installed a comprehensive and secure communication system around the pit. Accordingly, Côté is always looking for people skilled in computers and communication networks.

The process plant incorporates a mix of traditional welltested technologies with novel uses of established processes. The crushing and grinding elements are partially traditional (gyratory crusher, cone crusher and ball mill) as well as newer, yet well-established technologies such as High-Pressure Grinding Rolls (HPGR) and vertical mills. The gold recovery process is conventional with gravity recovery, as well as leaching (CIL) and Carbon-in-pulp (CIP).

The Future

Côté Gold currently has an estimated mine life of 18 years, but the Company firmly believes that Côté Gold is not just a project, but the start of a district with significant potential for mine life extension. The recent focus for exploration at Côté has been at the Gosselin deposit that is located immediately adjacent to the Côté Pit. In late 2021, the Company announced a maiden resource at Gosselin of 3.4 million ounces of measured and indicated and an additional 1.7 million ounces of inferred. Gosselin has only been drilled to half the depth of Côté and is open along strike and at depth. Approximately 17,000 meters of diamond drilling was completed in 2022, with another 15,000 meters planned this year to further delineate and expand the Gosselin deposit and test targets in the region. The Company is conducting the necessary environmental and mine optimization studies to understand how best to incorporate Gosselin into the Côté Gold life-of-mine plans.

Looking beyond Gosselin, there is significant upside to be uncovered as there has been minimal historical exploration targeting these Côté/Gosselin-style intrusionhosted deposits within the large 596 km2 land package.