The intrusive complex at La Verde is dominated by quartz diorite, which is exposed along an east-west-trending arcuate mountain range roughly 5.5 km long, 1 km wide, and up to 290 m above the surrounding blanket of Quaternary sediments.

The East Hill contains four main copper mineralized zones. Three of these zones (#1, #3, and #4) are hosted within altered and brecciated quartz diorite in close proximity to dykes and stocks of quartz-feldspar porphyry, while the fourth zone (#2) is hosted largely within unbrecciated quartz-feldspar porphyry. All four mineralized zones form a roughly circular pattern on the western half of the East Hill, in a plan view. Brecciation mechanisms on the East Hill vary from mechanical milling to hydrothermal cracking. Alteration tends to be fairly tightly restricted to zones of brecciation, except in the case of large-scale calcium-sodium metasomatism within quartz diorite adjacent to quartz-feldspar porphyry. Potassic feldspar alteration was noted in drillholes located on the north side of the East Hill.

The West Hill is characterized by approximately east-west trending bands of phyllic / propylitic alteration with associated pyrite-chalcopyrite ±arsenopyrite pyrrhotite veining at the contact between quartz diorite porphyry and equigranular quartz diorite. The lateral extent of these mineralized east-west striking veins forms a north-northeast south-southwest trending roughly elliptical shaped mineralized body, in a plan view. The western half of the West Hill consists of equigranular “red diorite” stained red by inclusions of hematite. A major north-northwest-trending magnetic lineament occupies this region of the West Hill and may reflect a structural break separating red diorite to the west from quartz diorite to the east. Apart from a few small vein showings, no significant copper mineralization has been intersected to date within the red diorite.

In the West Hill area vein-controlled phyllic and propylitic alteration is oriented east-northeast within the quartz-gabbro porphyry stock, east-southeast within surrounding quartz diorite, and east-west common to both. Historical mapping indicates linear east trending zones of quartz-sericite alteration that can be traced for up to 900 m on surface.

Alteration on East Hill is limited to mineralized zones and associated breccias although there are a few broad zones of calcium-sodium metasomatism found on the East Hill. Potassic alteration was observed in drill cores on the north side of the East Hill deposits. Outside of these zones, little to no pervasive wall-rock alteration is present.

Mineralization discovered to date at La Verde occurs predominantly within five main zones, four of which are situated within the East Hill area.

West Hill
The West Hill deposit has a north-northeast-trending elliptical outline, approximately 300 to 500 m wide by 800 m in length. Mineralization on the West Hill deposit occurs in veins within phyllic-propylitic alteration envelopes and the mineralization outcrops in a number of locations, commonly marked by the appearance of limonite-malachite stained waste piles and / or sparse vegetation “kill” zones.

Phyllic-propylitic alteration veins strike east-northeast within the quartz-gabbro porphyry stock, east-southeast within surrounding quartz diorite, and east-west common to both.

East Hill
The #1 Zone is exposed at surface between sections 812300 to 812600 mE as a roughly east-trending series of malachite-stained quartz diorite breccia outcrops. Weathering and copper-oxide mineralization is generally restricted to within 20 m of surface.

Mineralization occurs principally as disseminations and blebs of bornite-chalcopyrite± arsenopyrite-molybdenite throughout the matrix and within fragments of brecciated quartz diorite. Some mineralization also occurs as planar fracture veinlets and joint coatings within large quartz diorite blocks and unbrecciated quartz diorite wall-rock. The breccias are generally weakly to moderately altered to an assemblage of chlorite-sericite-calcite±quartz. Zones of patchy pink alteration have been interpreted to be potassically altered (potassium feldspar-chlorite-sericite ±quartz-epidote-calcite) fragments and are almost always associated with higher-grade bornite±molybdenite-arsenopyrite mineralization within the #1 Zone.

The #1 Zone forms a well-defined, consistently mineralized body at a cut-off grade of 0.3% Cu. It has rough dimensions of 150 to 220 m wide, 100 to 150 m deep, and 200 m long.

Copper mineralization within the #2 Zone generally does not begin until 50 to 150 m below surface. However, copper mineralization on the western extension between lines 812300 mE to 812350 mE comes within 5 to 10 m of surface and is clearly visible as a chargeability inversion anomaly. The upper 100 to 200 m of this zone is hosted within a rootless, unbrecciated, quartz-feldspar porphyry which shows little alteration outside of the mineralized veinlets. Below the porphyry, mineralization continues down into quartz diorite and quartz diorite breccia.

The #2 Zone trends east-southeast and at a cut-off grade of 0.3% Cu forms a well-defined, consistently mineralized, vertically dipping tabular body between 50 to 150 m wide, up to 250 to 300 m in strike length, and with a dip extent of 350 m that is open at depth. The bottom of the mineralizing system has yet to be defined for most of its strike length and there is potential to add significant tonnage to this zone at depth.

The #3 Zone is intermittently exposed on surface for roughly 400 m between sections 812325 to 812725 mE as a south-east trending zone of malachite-stained breccias of quartz-feldspar porphyry in the north-west and quartz diorite breccia extending from the centre to the south-east. Mixed breccias of quartz-feldspar porphyry and quartz diorite occur within the contact areas between the two main rock types. Weathering and copper oxide mineralization is generally restricted to within 20 m of surface except in zones of faulting where surface waters have percolated to greater depths.

Copper mineralization within the #4 Zone does not outcrop and generally does not begin until 100 to 300 m below surface. Historical mapping indicates that it is manifested at surface as a 60 to 90 m wide north-west trending band of weakly to non-mineralized green sericitized crackle breccia between sections 811925 to 812250 m E. Near its eastern boundary in section 812225 mE, the #4 Zone approaches within 20 to 30 m of surface where it appears to merge with the #2 Zone.

Las Minitas
The Las Minitas prospect occurs 2 km east-southeast of the East Hill, just east of the town of Las Minitas. The prospect is characterized by an area, roughly 100 by 50 m, of exposed malachite chips and a few shallow historical trenches. Geophysical and geochemical surveys revealed an east-west trending IP inversion anomaly with coincident copper-in-soil anomaly over a strike length of roughly 700 m. Subsequent drilling intersected significant copper mineralization in only one of five holes drilled to test the area. Hole C11-05-20 confirmed the existence of shallow copper mineralization of limited width and strike extent immediately east of the historical showing.

Mineralization here occurs as a 15 m wide discrete band of chalcopyrite-pyrite disseminations and veins within pervasively quartz-chlorite-epidote altered massive medium-grain quartz-monzodiorite. The mineralized band is interpreted from geophysics to dip moderately (~45°) to the south and was not intersected in any other holes located 200 m, 400 m, and 640 m to the east.

The La Verde project lends itself to a conventional truck and shovel open pit mining method.

The conceptual mining schedule calls for ex-pit mining rates of Ktonne/day during Year 1, 264 Ktonne/day from Year 2 to 4, and an average of 296 Ktonne/day from Year 5 to 18.

For this size of mining operation and the selectivity required in this type of deposit, large size mining equipment is proposed. Both productivities and costs have been estimated on the following operational scheme:
• Drilling and Blasting on 15 m benches.
• Primary loading with rope and hydraulic shovels.
• Use of 225 tonnes haul trucks.
Use of electric equipment (primary drills and rope shovels) is considered.

The open pits were scheduled using the Milawa algorithm which is part of the Whittle Four-X package. Highlights of the selected mining schedule are:
• The selected schedule calls for 21 years of mining activity; in Year -1, 65 million tonnes are pre-stripped, open pit mining occurs between Year 1 and Year 19, and stockpile reclaiming in Years 20 and 21.
• Metal prices and mill recoveries are the same as those used for NSR calculation and pit optimization.

Crushing equipment is based on the AMC database for similar size base metal projects. Two gyratory crushers of 60” x 89” are proposed.

From this AMC has determined that two 22 MW SAG mills (12.2 m x 6.7 m with wraparound gearless motors) and two 15 MW ball mills are required. A single regrind mill of 2.15 MW capacity is also indicated.

The ball mills are in closed circuit with cyclones.

The proposed flowsheet is a conventional copper concentrator flowsheet comprising crushing, grinding (SAG, Ball mill pebble crusher – SABC), and flotation with concentrate regrind and three stages of cleaning. There will be two trains of grinding and two rougher flotation banks followed by a common regrind and cleaner circuit.

“Fixing” the arsenic as a stable waste product is also a vital part of the process and this will be achieved at La Verde by wet scrubbing of the roaster exhaust gases to capture the arsenic (as water soluble arsenic trioxide) and the oxidized particulate (mainly iron oxide). The iron oxide will dissolve in the acid scrub liquor to provide the necessary iron (minimum 4:1 Fe:As stoichiometric ratio), along with limestone to neutralize the liquor and air oxidation, to stabilize the arsenic as hydrated ferric arsenate (FeAsO4.2H2O; artificial scorodite). This is environmentally stable over a much wider range of pH and oxidation potential than a calcium ars ........