The evolution of magmatic arcs are related to the formation of economically exploitable porphyry systems of Cu-Au, Cu-Mo, or Cu-Mo-Au. Research results show that the magmatic arcs that evolved from the Jurassic-Lower Cretaceous to the CretaceousTertiary are also genetically related to economically minable copper-gold mineralization in porphyry systems that were emplaced in the so-called coastal range, as was the case of La Tapada and Tia Maria.

These porphyry systems indicate that in the western edge of the South American plate a volcanic island arc existed, with the presence of tholeitic magmatism that evolved into calc alkaline magmatism which, contrary to what was previously assumed, are related to the occurrence of economically minable copper mineralization with absence of molybdenum and presence of gold.

It was projected that the Project would last 21 years; three years to start up, and 18 years, in two phases, for operations. In the first phase, between years three and 15, the company would exploit the La Tapada deposit through an open pit mine, extracting 817.5 million metric tons of materials. In the second phase, between years 15 and 21, the corporation would exploit the Tia Maria deposit, again through an open pit mine, and extract 399.9 million metric tons of materials.

The transportation of the material was planned in several phases. First, the mineral and the material removed by explosives would be excavated and loaded into dump trucks, then transported to the deposit or the crushing plant located close to the open pit mine. The crushed material would then be transferred to other phases of the process, including the leaching plant, by an overland conveyor system.

This project will use state of the art SX-EW technology with the highest international environmental standards. SX-EW facilities are the most environmentally friendly in the industry due to their technical process and consequently, no emissions into the atmosphere are released. The project will only use seawater, transporting this more than 25 kilometers and at 1,000 meters above sea level, constructing a desalinization plant representing an investment of $95 million.