INDEPENDENCE GROUP NL ANNUAL REPORT 2017

Directors' report 30 June 2017 (continued) Operating and financial review (continued) The Group currently has the following operations in the production phase in Western Australia: • The Tropicana Gold Mine (IGO: Non-operator joint venturer; 30% owned) is located 330km east northeast of Kalgoorlie. The Operation comprises approximately 3,000km 2 of tenements (excluding the Beachcomber and Salt Creek joint venture tenure) stretching over more than 275km in strike length along the Yilgarn Craton and Fraser Range Mobile Belt Collision Zone. The Company targeted and pegged the area containing the current Ore Reserves in 2001. AngloGold Ashanti Australia Limited farmed into the project in 2002, discovering Tropicana, Havana and the Boston Shaker gold deposits in 2005, 2006 and 2010 respectively. The gold deposits occur over a 5km strike length with gold mineralisation intersected to a depth of 1km vertically beneath the natural surface. The decision by the Tropicana Joint Venture partners to develop the Tropicana Gold Mine was announced in November 2010 following a positive bankable feasibility study assessment. In early 2011, construction commenced with the site access road, followed by key site infrastructure including an aerodrome, accommodation village, borefields and processing plant. Mining of the Havana deposit commenced in 2012. Commissioning of the processing plant occurred in 2013, with the first gold poured in September 2013. In 2016, the gas pipeline project, which included the installation of 17 gas fired generators, was completed. The original designed nameplate capacity of the processing plant of 5.8Mtpa was achieved in March 2014. In 2016 and early 2017, the processing plant went through a redesign and optimisation project to increase the throughput capacity to 7.5Mtpa, a rate at which Tropicana was able to demonstrate in the second half of FY17. Independence Group NL 2 IGO ANNUAL REPORT 2017— 33 DIRECTORS’ REPORT 30 JUNE 2017 (continued)