The mine exploits the Zn-Pb deposit, which was discovered in 1970. The orebody lies between 50 and 1000 metres below the surface and extends over an area of 6.5 kilometres by 1.5 kilometers.

The overall geology in the Tara mine area mainly consists of series of sediments, volcanics and intrusives. All of the series are structurally complex and lithologically varied. The mineralization forms a series of sulphide lenses within these Pale Beds. Overall, the Pale Beds are considered to have a fair to good rock mass quality with a moderate to high rock strength. Above the Pale Beds is an area containing Shaley Pales (Boliden Tara Mines, 2013). Contained in the Shaley Pales is a well-bedded calcarenite based lithology. In some sections, it is dominated by Argillite and by Calcarenite or Sandstone in others.

In Tara mine, two different mining methods are currently used. These mining methods are open stoping and drift-and-slash mining.

Ore production encompasses the drilling, blasting and removal of the ore from underground deposits. Broken ore is delivered to one of five underground primary crushers and reduced in size to less than 150 millimetres before being hoisted to the surface. Ore is then fed to an Autogenous grinding mill which grinds the ore to a fine powder which is then pumped as aqueous slurry to metallurgic flotation cells.

Within the flotation cells, galena (Lead sulphide) and sphalerite (Zinc sulphide) are differentially separated, while undesirable minerals such as pyrite are depressed. Once the target minerals have been extracted the tailings stream is cycloned to separate the coarse sand fraction from the finer slimes fraction. The coarse fraction of tailings is pumped, to the underground mined out areas. In so doing, approximately 50% of the tailings are used underground to backfill mined voids. The tailings used for backfilling is stabilised, chemically and physically, by mixing with cement.

Processing of the run-of-mine ore starts with the grinding of ore to 80 weight percent below 75 microns. Grinding is done using an autogenous grinding (AG) mill, which uses the ore itself as a grinding medium. A small ball mill is used for the secondary grinding of pebbles sized material and is applied when necessary.

Water and chemical reagents are added to the mill feed. A 15 by 30mm grate is placed in the mill to let the fines pass and to reuse the oversize in the mill for grinding, since it is the grinding medium. The AG mill slurry discharge is typically 62% solids by weight. A spiral classifier is used to remove the coarse fraction, which is send back to the AG mill for regrinding. The fine fraction is send to the flotation circuit and now typically contains 45 wt.-% solids.

In the flotation circuit, chemical activators and flocculants are added, to activate the flotation of lead first. In the froth flotation, the valuable minerals are carried to the top of the flotation cell by the air bubbles. The lead bearing froth is removed from the slurry, after which it is concentrated using a series of roughers and cleaners.

The remaining slurry is treated similarly, while using different additives to activate the zinc metal. Zinc metal froth comes to the top of the flotation tank after which it is removed. Both metal concentrates (respectively 67% lead and 56% zinc) are dewatered and brought to the rail transportation area. The zinc and lead concentrate are stored separately.

When the valuable minerals have been recovered in the flotation circuit, the material remaining is known as tailings. From these tailings, the slimes and fine particles are removed using hydrocyclones and are pumped to the tailings pond. At the tailings pond the slimes settle out and clean water is recycled to the mine for varies purposes. The more coarse material remaining from the flotation process, called sand, is stored in tanks. Together with water and cement, this sand is added for a cemented backfill. The water, cement and sand mixture is pumped into the open stopes through boreholes. Over 1 million tonnes of tailings sand is used every year as backfill.