Mineralization in the Filo del Sol area shows affinities with both porphyry copper-gold-molybdenum and high- sulphidation gold-silver epithermal systems. The deposit defined by the mineral resource is best classified as epithermal in the north (Filo del Sol) and copper-gold porphyry plus epithermal in the south (Tamberias). The mineralized system in its entirety is thought to represent a porphyry – epithermal system, with multiple intrusive and breccia centres, and so combines aspects of both these deposit types. The Flamenco fault is an important structure that separates the exposed porphyry Au-Cu system in the south at Cerro Vicuña - Tamberias, from the relatively down-dropped block to the north with the preserved high-sulphidation system at Filo del Sol.

The Filo del Sol deposit encompasses both the Filo del Sol high-sulphidation epithermal system and part of the Tamberias area which is interpreted as a fault-offset part of the same hydrothermal system. The deposit occurs within a porphyry Cu-Au and high-sulphidation epithermal Cu-Au-Ag system that formed during rapid uplift and erosion in the Middle Miocene. Porphyry intrusions and associated Cu-Au mineralization are associated with an early epithermal system have been eroded and overprinted by at least one subsequent stage of porphyry intrusion and epithermal system development. The Filo del Sol system is largely associated with this second, later part of the progressive development of the system.

The Filo del Sol property is characterized by a large hydrothermal alteration zone extending for approximately 18km2, from south of Cerro Vicuña to the Maranceles and Potro areas in the north. The alteration types and zonation across the area allow for a series of porphyry intrusive centres with associated higher-level high-sulphidation epithermal systems that have been structurally-offset and exposed to different depths. Alteration in the south around Cerro Vicuña-Tamberias includes both remnant potassic porphyry-style alteration, with overprinting epithermal alteration; while Filo del Sol up to Maranceles presents high-sulphidation epithermal mineralogy. The system at Ventanas has not yet been extensively evaluated but appears to also host both porphyry and epithermal features.

In the immediate Filo del Sol deposit area, alteration is consistent with a high-sulphidation epithermal system. The deposit occurs within a lithocap domain formed to the south of one of the main up-flow zones mapped through alteration mineralogy. A shallowly west- and north-dipping quartz-alunite alteration domain is controlled, at least in-part, by the basal contact of the conglomeratic rocks. Below the quartz-alunite zone, alteration changes rapidly to argillic assemblages that include illite and downwards into montmorillonite. Immediately overlying the quartz-alunite zone are alteration domains resulting from fluid interactions at a receding paleo-water surface, including a domain of massive silicification, followed upwards generally by residual silica with several perched lenses of opaline silica, and capped by steam-heated alteration formed in the vadose zone above the progressively descending paleo-water surface.

The PEA Study contemplates conventional open pit mining methods. The open pit will have a mine life of 15 years, including pre-stripping, with a life of mine strip ratio of 0.96:1. A maximum mining rate of 44 Mt per year (including waste) is required to provide the nominal 50,000 tpd of leach material feed. A total of approximately 215 Mt of leach material is expected to be processed over the life of the mine.

Primary crushed material will be transported via a series of surface conveyors and mobile stacking equipment to the various leach pads. The Project has been designed with a combination of permanent cyanidation, permanent acid and on/off acid heap leach pads. The treatment path for process feed will be selected by mineral resource type and valuable metals present. The process feed will be crushed by primary and open-circuit secondary crushing to an 80% passing 38mm product. The material containing only gold and silver values will be processed on the permanent cyanidation heap leach. Material containing only copper values will be processed on the permanent acid heap leach. The material containing copper and gold and/or silver values will be processed on the on/off acid heap before being transferred to the permanent cyanidation heap leach for additional processing. The material will be campaigned, so process feed will only be processed through a single path at a time at 50,000 tpd. Gold and silver will be recovered from solution utilizing a Merrill-Crowe plant to produce doré bars and copper will be recovered using solvent extraction and electro-winning to produce copper cathodes.