The Salares Norte Project is located in the northern part of the Maricunga Belt, an area with a predominance of Cenozoic volcanic rocks, comprised of eroded strato-volcanos, volcanic domes and pyroclastic rocks. Mineralisation at Salares Norte is contained in a high sulphidation epithermal system, hosted mainly by a breccia complex along the contact of two volcanic domes of andesitic and dacitic composition. Mineral resources have been delineated by drilling in two separate deposits, Brecha Principal and Agua Amarga, which are located about 500 metres apart. Most of the mineralisation known to date is oxidised. The sulphide mineralisation contains mainly pyrite.

The mining contractor will use open pit mining methods and mediumsized diesel equipment. Mining will be done on 15m benches with waste mined in a single pass and ore benches split into three 5m flitches. Haul roads have a maximum gradient of 10%. Powder factors for blasting vary according to the rock hardness, and powder factors range from 91g to 149g of explosives per tonne of rock.

Initially, waste will be hauled to the south WSF to build the pad for the plant and TSF. Once the pad is completed waste will be hauled to the north WSF. All ore will be hauled to either the RoM pad or one of the grade-bin stockpiles, from which it will be re-handled to the crusher. The mining contractor will be responsible for hauling the tailings from the plant to the TSF.

Ore will be processed at a rate of 2Mtpa. The process flowsheet includes single stage crushing, SAG and ball milling, leaching in agitated tanks, and hybrid metal extraction employing both Merrill-Crowe and CIP. Tailings from the CIP will be subjected to cyanide detoxification prior to filtration. The filter cake will be trucked to the dry stack tailings facility. Power supply will be from on-site diesel power generators while water will be sourced from groundwater wells located approximately 12km from the plant area.