The Middle Devonian rocks of interest in the Pine Point district are overlain by non-mineralized Middle and Upper Devonian rocks. These in turn are overlain by Pleistocene glacial deposits and post-glacial swamp deposits, which cover nearly all the surface of the district. Outcrops are rare.

The Middle Devonian sedimentary rocks which host the lead-zinc deposits in the district are littledeformed. There is also extensive karstification (the dissolution of the soluble carbonate rocks), which occurred during a period of uplift of the sedimentary rocks. Folding is minor and generally associated with differential compaction of the original sediments, or karst subsidence features. Southwesterly trending lineaments in the underlying Precambrian basement have a 0.9 m/km slope to the west beneath the sedimentary rocks of the district, but these do not have visible expressions in the Devonian rocks.

Mineralization occurs in carbonate (limestone and dolomite) host rocks and is typically associated with the ingress of mineralizing brines into structurally prepared cavities associated with dissolution of the carbonate rocks by karst processes. In the case of Pine Point, this dissolution and mineralization process occurred on an extensive scale and was controlled by the distribution of a major carbonate barrier reef complex of Devonian age.

Pine Point lead-zinc mineralization was derived from a host some distance from the present position of the deposits. Circulating epithermal fluids from a possible magmatic source may have been responsible for the mineralization which occurs in the carbonate sediments as open-space cavity fillings and local replacements.

This Plan covers mining 10 deposits at Pine Point via conventional open pit (OP) methods. Mining of the deposits will produce a total of 29.5 Mt of plant feed, along with 117.2 Mt of waste (4.0:1 overall strip ratio) over a 13-year mine life (excluding pre-production period). The mine design process for the deposits commenced with the development of OP optimization design parameters. These parameters included estimates of metal prices, mining dilution, process recovery (both dense media separation (DMS) and flotation), off-site costs, geotechnical constraints (slope angles), and royalties.

The current life of mine (LOM) plan focuses on achieving consistent plant feed production rates, and early mining of higher value material, as well as balancing grade and strip ratios.

The process design criteria and flowsheets have been developed based on both the recent metallurgical test work results detailed in, and historical operating data. The test data indicates that the Pine Point mineralized material can be treated using conventional mineral processing techniques, applying conventional differential flotation techniques for the recovery of lead and zinc concentrates.

The concentrator plant will consist of a grinding mill, lead rougher flotation and one stage of lead cleaner flotation and zinc rougher flotation, and two stages of zinc cleaner flotation. Both concentrates will be dewatered in concentrate thickeners and pressure filters.

The processing facilities will consist of the following unit operations:
- Two plants - 3-stage crushing and screening;
- Two DMS plants;
- Primary grinding;
- Lead flotation using conventional and column cells;
- Zinc flotation using conventional and column cells;
- Lead co ........