The Caballo Blanco property and Almaden Minerals neighboring El Cobre property includes at least two distinct deposit types, defined as high-sulphidation epithermal gold and porphyry copper gold respectively.

The Caballo Blanco property lies at the eastern end of the Trans Mexican Volcanic Belt and is underlain by sub-aerial basalts, andesites and diorite dykes of Miocene age that are in turn covered by a sequence of felsic quartz tuffs, andesitic ‘dome’ complexes, volcaniclastics and younger intrusive dacitic plugs. Capping the volcanic package are Pliocene alkaline basalt flows that are commonly well preserved as small flat highland plateaus.

At least two large areas of epithermal precious metal occur within the current Caballo Blanco property, referred to as the Northern Zone and Highway Zone. Mineralization is confined to altered varieties of upper Miocene andesitic domes and dacitic intrusives.

Northern Zone High-Sulphidation Epithermal Gold Target
Geological mapping, rock chip sampling, geophysical surveying and core drilling have identified a large area of silica and associated silica clay alteration within an andesitic dome complex along the northern portion of the property. Altered feldspar andesites that host gold mineralization are spread over an area of 5 by 4 kilometers and occur in close association to a prominent magnetic ring structure with at least five prominent silica caps forming distinct 600 meter high hilltops. Roc ........

It is proposed that the La Paila deposit is amenable to be developed as an open pit mine. Mining of the deposit is planned to produce a total of 49.3 million tonnes (Mt) of heap leach feed and 81.8 Mt of waste (1.7:1 overall strip ratio) over a seven and a half year mine operating life. The current life of mine (LOM) plan focuses on achieving consistent heap leach feed production rates, mining of higher grade material early in schedule, and balancing grade and strip ratios.

The mining sequence was divided into a number of stages designed to maximize grade, reduce pre-stripping requirements in the early years and maintain the heap leach at full production capacity.

The open pit mining activities for the Caballo Blanco pit were assumed to be primarily undertaken by a mining contractor as the basis for this preliminary economic assessment. An operating bench of 10 meters was assumed for the preliminary mine planning.

The fleet has an estimated maximum capacity of 70,000 t/d total material, which will be sufficient for the life-of-mine (“LOM”) plan.

Two hundred and fifty millimeter diameter blast hole drills are planned to perform the majority of the production drilling in the mine (both mineralized and waste rock), with the 165 millimeter diameter hydraulic drill to be used for secondary blasting requirements and may be used on the tighter spaced patterns required for pit development blasts. The main loading and haulage fleet is pl ........

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