The Toromocho ore body lies within the central copper zone of the well-zoned Cu/Pb-Zn/Pb-Ag polymetallic Morococha district. The ore body forms the center of a skarn and breccia associated with 7 million year old mineralisation, alteration, and granodiorite and porphyry intrusions.

Geology of the Toromocho Deposit is complex and with a high degree of variability. Copper is in primary sulphide and skarn material. Skarn represents 50% of the material that contain copper mineralisation. High percentage of fluorine and MgO has been noted with skarn ores as alterations in form of talc, phlogopite and chlorites that are considered as problematic at the time of floatation in both reducing copper recovery and causing high concentration of MgO and fluorine in the concentrate that attracts undesirable heavy penalties.

The Toromocho ore body outcrops on the surface. The copper ore body extends downwards to a flat “bottom” 500 to 600 m below the surface. The highest grade part of the ore body lies within a 1.0 km × 2.0 km body of brecciated skarn, surrounding a cupola-like 7 million year old feldspar porphyry and granodiorite intrusive, and underlies on the west side, the older regional andesitic/dioritic intrusive exposed on the surface.

The primary ore body is over-printed by late-stage, pyritic primary mineralisation, clay and serpentine alteration, and supergene chalcocite and covellite enrichment. Spotty and structurally controlled, moderateto weak, ........

The Toromocho Mine is a conventional large scale open pit mine. The ore and waste rock is drilled and blasted prior to excavation by electric rope shovel excavators. The ore is loaded into ultra-class diesel powered off-highway rigid dump trucks (Cat’ 797) and hauled to either stockpile, or dumped directly into the primary crusher. The waste rock is hauled to the western waste dump. The mining fleet is owned and operated by Toromocho Mine.

Blast hole drilling operations at Toromocho are conducted using three large electric Pit Viper 351 blast hole drilling rigs. The drills are capable of drilling up to a ± 20 m depth as a single-pass at 350 mm diameter with some 56.7 t of bit loading. All blast holes are loaded with bulk emulsion explosives that are mixed on site by the local explosives contract provider. The blasting contractor supplies all explosives and blasting accessories for each blast. Blasting patterns in the Skarn and Hornfels is on a 6.9 x 8.0 m staggered pattern. The Potassic material is much harder than either the Skarn or Hornfels and achieves optimum fragmentation at a 5 × 6 m staggered pattern.

The main loading fleet at the Toromocho Mine are the three 35 cu.mt rope shovels (Cat’ 4795) supported by a large Le Tourneau 2350 Front End Loader (FEL). The large FEL provides some degree of blending capability and a fall-back loading capacity.

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