The Prosperity deposit is predominantly hosted in Cretaceous andesitic volcaniclastic and volcanic rocks which are transitional to a sequence of sparsely mineralized, volcanically-derived sedimentary rocks to the south. The andesitic volcaniclastics are comprised of coarse-grained crystal tuff and ash tuff, and thinly bedded tuff with lesser lapilli tuff. The upper eastern portion of the deposit is hosted by subvolcanic units of crowded feldspar porphyritic andesite and thick feldspar and hornblende porphyritic flows.

In the western portion of the deposit, the multi-phase Fish Creek Stock has intruded into a thick sequence of andesite flows which overlay volcaniclastic rocks. The steeply south-dipping, oval quartz diorite stock, which is approximately 265 m wide by 800 m long, is surrounded by an east-west trending swarm of subparallel quartz-feldspar porphyritic dikes, which also dip steeply to the south. Together the stock and dikes comprise the Late Cretaceous Fish Lake Intrusive Complex that is spatially and genetically related to the deposit. Post-mineralization porphyritic diorite occurs as narrow dikes that cross-cut all units within the deposit. They represent the final intrusive phase of the emplacement of the Fish Lake Intrusive Complex.

The deposit area is overlain by a variably thick overburden cover consisting of Wisconsinian glacial till, Miocene to Pliocene basalt flows, and Tertiary colluvium and lacustrine sediments.

The depo ........

The Prosperity open pit will be a nominal 525 m deep when complete.

The mining equipment will operate on a 15m high bench in overburden and hardrock. Wall slope design changes will be implemented by varying the berm widths and inter-berm slope angles.

Berms will be left on every bench in overburden and on alternate benches in hardrock. Berm width design will vary from 15 m to 10 m as the overall wall slope is increased from 45° to 50° in the Lower Zone.

The open pit will be mined in four phases commencing with the Phase 1 – Starter Pit. The pit will be partially pre-stripped during the preproduction development period. The starter pit will provide building materials for the tailings impoundment starter dam. The Phase 2 through Phase 4 pits are radial expansions of the mine about the Starter Pit creating a progressively deeper pit.

The mine will operate using electric cable shovels and rotary drills. Diesel electric trucks and a support equipment fleet will gradually be increased to match the production schedule that will peak in terms of total production in Year 7 through Year 9 at 200,000 tpd.

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The process design is conventional and consists of SAG and ball mill grinding; bulk sulphide flotation, regrind and bulk rougher/scavenger cleaner flotation, cleaner flotation and concentrate dewatering. The concentrator is designed to operate 24 hours per day, 365 days per year.

Bulk Rougher/Scavenger Flotation
The bulk flotation circuit will consist of three parallel trains of bulk rougher cells.

Cyclone overflow from each of the three parallel grinding circuits will flow by gravity into a collection box and then split into three equal portions to feed each of the three rows of seven cells. The cells in each row are 200 m3 forced air cells, giving a total of 21 cells for the complete bulk rougher flotation area. This combination of cells provides the power and retention time required for flotation. The tailings from the last scavenger cells in each row are combined as bulk flotation tailings.

The flotation reagent distribution system will perm ........