Directors’ Report Big River (continued) The St George area comprises the Golden Hill, Big River South and St George historical mine areas. In the historic Golden Hill claim a 0.6m to 2mwide quartz reef was found in the late 1800’s. The quartz reef was traced in a series of trenches over a strike length of 900m. A 55m long drive was developed on the northern section of the reef that averaged 0.5m thick and 39 tons were mined and crushed for an average grade of 7g/t Au. This was considered sub economic at the time and no further exploration has been completed. Big River South was discovered in 1908, when a 45m long reef 1.5mwide with visible gold was estimated to grade between 23g/t and 32g/t Au and had similarities with the nearby Blackwater Reef. Good reef was intersected in exploration drives which pinched and swelled. On one level a 100m long gold reef was found but no further work was done to prove its extent or worth and the Reefton South claimwas never worked after 1925. St George, just to the south of Big River South, was found after several gold bearing outcrops were found in the 1890’s. An early 30m drive was completed on a 1m reef containing quartz and black pug with very encouraging results. 70 ounces were recovered from 30 tons of ore recovered, with an estimated grade of 72g/t Au. Three further reefs were discovered where 37 ounces were recovered from 16 tons of ore also with an estimated grade of 72g/t Au. The reefs were found to pinch and swell and, again, development was hampered by a lack of funding. The claimwas abandoned until 1910 when an ambitious plan was to drive a low-level tunnel from Snowy River. In 1910 a 571m long tunnel was driven north from the Snowy River. From 240m the tunnel was driven along the gold bearing reef with several small gold reefs or quartz boulders were intersected along the drive, but none were developed. The war in 1914 stopped any further exploration. Diamond Drilling Drilling commenced in Big River in 2011 when OceanaGold Limited (OGL) drilled 19 diamond holes for a total of 4,106m. Siren commenced diamond drilling at Big River in October 2020, with 26 holes completed for a total of 5,893mwith 11 holes for 3,146m completed in 2022. OGL’s drilling focused on the SE side of the Big River mine, targeting 100-200m below the surface (Figure 9). Siren targeted Shoot 4 and extended the shoot to around 400m below the surface. BR35, which was the deepest hole drilled at Big River to date, intersected 5.9m@ 4.1g/t Au. This hole intersected approximately 100m belowmine Level 7, which was the deepest level Shoot 4 was mined to, before the mine closed in 1942 duringWW2. BR44 was drilled 100m below BR35. This hole intersected the mineralised zone at 425m but then intersected a 16m thick dolerite dyke that cut off the mineralisation. BR45 was drilled 100m above BR34 (5.9m@ 4.1g/t Au from 361m) on the interpreted SE edge of Shoot 4 and intersected 9m@ 1.8g/t Au. Siren has also targeted the A2 shoot (Figure 9). Drillholes BR37 (5.2m@ 6.3g/t Au from 213m), BR41 (6m@ 1.5g/t Au from 252m) and BR39 (10m@ 1.2g/t Au from 271m, including 3m@ 2.5g/t Au) intersected the A2 Shoot. The deeper drilling in the A2 Shoot indicates that the shoot has a slightly shallower plunge than previously interpreted and that drillholes BR40 and BR41 intersected the footwall. Significant intersections are shown in Table 5, with several of the drillholes intersecting a second mineralised structure (Shoot 4b) 5-10m below. for the year ended 31 December 2022 Siren Gold Limited 18
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