The Palito and São Chico gold deposits are located within the northern portion of the Tapajós-Parima Orogenic Belt (TPOB), a constituent of the Ventauri-Tapajós province of the Guaporé Shield. Formed between 2.5 and 1.8 Ga, the TPOB is a northwest oriented magmatic arc bound to the north by the Amazonian Basin and to the south by the Cachimbo Graben. Within the TPOB, the Tapajós Gold Province hosts numerous primary gold deposits over an area of approximately 300 kilometers (km) by 350 km.

Mineralization at the Palito and São Chico deposits is hosted in granite and granodiorite of the Paráuari suite. Mineralization at the Palito Mine is hosted within three granitoids and is intimately associated with northwest-southeast vertical to sub-vertical mesothermal quartz-chalcopyrite-pyrite veins and pyrite disseminations filling the brittle-ductile fault sets. At Palito, the nature of sulfide mineralization varies along the strike and plunge extents of the deposit. Pyrite and chalcopyrite dominate in the granites, whereas pyrrhotite and pyrite with lesser chalcopyrite are found in the granodiorite. Within the granodiorites, the pyrrhotite-pyrite sulfides tend to be lower grade due to lower chalcopyrite content.

The Main Vein at São Chico strikes in a broadly west-northwest direction, dips steeply to the south, and ranges from approximately 1.0 to 3.9 meters (m) in apparent width. Mineralization extends approximately 140 m down dip and approximately 100 m along s ........

Palito Mine
Mining of the narrow, near-vertical gold veins at the Palito Mine is undertaken using the shrinkage stoping method.

Shrinkage stoping blocks are defined on the lower level by horizontal development mining along the vein, and a vertical raise is then driven to the top of the stoping block and ladders are installed so that men and materials can access the stope on each subsequent lift as mining advances upward.

Shrinkage stope mining progresses vertically beginning with the drilling of sub-vertical holes using hand-held pneumatic drills (stopers). The drill holes are loaded with explosives and the blasted ore is left in the stope except to the extent it is necessary to draw down the rock to leave an adequate distance between the working floor and the back. The ore left in the stope supports the walls and no installed ground support is typically required. Serabi extracts the broken ore via a series of crosscuts that are driven in waste from a footwall access. After a stope is mined to its full height, load-haul-dump (LHD) units are used to muck the remaining ore from the stope. The LHD units load haul trucks, which then transport the broken ore to the surface.

São Chico Mine
The São Chico Mine is high grade, narrow vein longhole stoping operation. Mining of the steeply dipping vein is by longitudinal longhole stoping methods using sublevels that are spaced at a nominal 15 m. Because structural backfill is not available and ........

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