The Taca Taca porphyry copper-gold-molybdenum deposit is hosted in the southern half of a 50 km long Ordovician batholith, which forms the Sierra de Taca Taca mountain range. The batholith consists of coarse-grained granite that is cut by several aplite dykes. This Early Paleozoic intrusion is intruded by Late Permian granites and aplites and overlain by Late Permian sediments and volcaniclastics. Narrow, north-south striking, steeply dipping rhyolitic dykes of Permo-Triassic age outcrop throughout the region. Oligocene rhyodacitic intrusions of the Santa Inés Formation are responsible for the porphyry copper mineralization and alteration at Taca Taca.

Late Tertiary red-bed sedimentary rocks are widely distributed in the region, but are most abundant east of Salar de Arizaro. These rocks possibly constitute the basal section of the sedimentary sequence that fills the salar basin. Lavas from recent (Pliocene to Pleistocene) volcanoes are exposed to the west and north of Taca Taca. Large evaporite deposits of alternating salts and sand were deposited in regional intermontane basins to form the present-day salars.

There are three main styles of mineralization associated with the Taca Taca copper goldmolybdenum porphyry: supergene/hypogene porphyry copper mineralization, remnant oxide copper-gold mineralization in the leach cap, and hematite-quartz copper-gold veins.

The Taca Taca deposit is amenable to conventional, large-scale, open pit mining methods. Floating cone (FC) evaluations were conducted to determine potentially economic pit limits and the mining phase (pushback) development sequence. Six mining phases were designed and used to estimate contained mineral resources, from which a mine production schedule was developed.

Large-scale open pit mining equipment operating on 15 m benches could be used to extract mineralized material and waste rock for the Project. Electric drills and shovels were chosen because of their lower operating costs and better reliability. The rest of the mining fleet is envisioned to consist of diesel-powered machinery to provide maximum flexibility in pit operations.

The Taca Taca mineralized material is of moderate competency and hardness, and amenable to grinding in a conventional SAG-ball milling circuit with pebble crushing. The mineralogy is fine grained and test work indicates a requirement to re-grind to a fine particle size to achieve adequate liberation for flotation, as is common practice within the industry.

The Taca Taca concentrator is planned to process 120,000 t/d of run of mine (ROM) material. Copper and molybdenum concentrates and tailings will be produced. The proposed process includes crushing and grinding of the ROM material, bulk copper-molybdenum rougher and cleaner flotation, regrinding, copper-molybdenum separation, molybdenum flotation, and dewatering of copper and molybdenum concentrates. The flotation tailings will be thickened before placement in a tailings storage facility (TSF). Prior to Year 8 an expansion is planned to be undertaken to increase the capacity of the concentrator to 180,000 t/d with the addi ........