The Decar Property, located in central British Columbia, hosts the Baptiste Deposit which is characterized as a disseminated Ni-Fe alloy (awaruite) Deposit. In addition to the Baptiste Deposit, there are three other known target areas on the Property that bear similarities to the Baptiste Deposit, all of which occur within the serpentinized ultramafic rocks of the Cache Creek terrane.

Historical exploration on the Property has focused on three deposit types: (1) Ni-Fe alloy (awaruite) in serpentinized ultramafic rock, (2) listwanite-hosted gold, and (3) chromite pods in ultramafic. Each of these is briefly described below even though, at this time, only the Ni-Fe alloy deposits are potentially economic.

Ni-Fe alloy deposits are an atypical deposit type formed by the serpentinization of magmatic olivine that leads to the liberation of nickel and iron (Britten, 2016) and subsequent formation of the alloy. Awaruite occurs throughout the entire extent of the peridotite on the Decar Property, but four zones of more abundant mineralization and larger grain size have been delineated; Baptiste, Sid, B and Van. The Baptiste Deposit is the most advanced of these four target areas. The other three targets are defined through surface mapping, sampling and/or diamond drilling, with three holes drilled at Sid Target and one drilled at B Target. High-grade awaruite appears to trend NW-SE, parallel to the orientation of lithological contacts and major fault structures.

The Baptiste Deposit is currently defined for approximately 3000 m in an east-west direction and for 600-1500 m from north to south. Most holes end in mineralization at true vertical depths of 250 m below the surface, with 14 of the 2012 holes ending in mineralization at vertical depths between 436-544 m. The Deposit is fault-bound in the southwest and grades into massive peridotite with lower-grade mineralization to the north and northwest. Drilling at the Sid and B targets is sufficient only to demonstrate that Baptiste-like mineralization occurs in these targets as well, but insufficient to determine the length, width, depth and continuity of the mineralization. No drilling has been completed at the Van Target.

The mine plan is based on a three-phase open pit mine development. The first phase of the proposed mine plan uses an external tailings storage facility (TSF) for disposing of tailings generated while mining the Phase 1 pit which will be mined for the first 21 years. After the Phase 1 pit is mined out, the tailings produced from Phase 2 and Phase 3 of the mine plan will be placed in the mined-out Phase 1 pit. A pit rim dam will be constructed in Year 25 to accommodate the additional tailings that will be stored in the Phase 1 and Phase 2 pits. The Phase 2 and Phase 3 pits will be mined from Year 22 to Year 35.

Mining will be conducted using conventional truck and shovel methods. Large-scale open pit mining will provide the mineral processing plant feed at a rate of 120,000 t/d, or 43.8 Mt/a which was based on processing capacity inputs provided. Annual mine production of mill feed and waste will peak at 80.1 Mt/a with a life-of-mine (LOM) stripping ratio of 0.40:1 including preproduction (0.32 during the first 10 years of operation, and 0.22 over the first 16 years of operations).

The Baptiste pit is designed for 10 m mining bench heights based on consideration of the loading equipment capabilities (mining height and reach). This may be modified during future detailed planning and equipment selection.

The primary crushing station is placed in an area in the vicinity of the open pit so as to minimize mine truck hauling distances. Run-of-mine material for processing is crushed and stockpiled. Downstream of the crushed material stockpile, the major process equipment number and size allows for a two-line configuration, each capable of operating independently. As such, this proposed configuration offers the flexibility of operating the plant at full capacity, or at half capacity when a unit of major equipment is down for maintenance on one of the two lines. As will be described herewith in more detail, each processing line will have one primary grinding circuit, one primary magnetic separation circuit, one fine grinding circuit with secondary magnetic separation and, finally, a common flotation circuit.

Primary Crushing
Material from the mine will be delivered by haul trucks to a single, 6.2 m x 10.3 m (60” X 110”), gyratory crusher equipped with a 1500 kW motor. Crushing and conveying utilization have been assumed at 70%. Material is crushed to a P80 (80% passing) of 226 mm and is conveyed to the secondary crusher screening system.

Secondary Crushing and Screening
Secondary crushing is performed using two, 1,865 kW, cone crushers in closed circuit with screens. Screening is performed using four double-deck, 4.25 m X 8.5 m (14’ x 28’), classification screens. Two parallel conveyors transport the product of the primary crusher and the oversize of two classification screens to one secondary crusher.

The screen undersize is conveyed to the stockpile by two parallel conveyors. The P80 of the circuit (screen undersize) is approximately 38 mm. Metal detectors and removal devices will be used in the crushing circuit to sense and extract tramp metallic objects and decrease the risk of substantial damage to downstream equipment. With this configuration, the crushing circuit can still operate at, at least, half capacity should one of the secondary crushers be down for maintenance.

Stockpile
The secondary crusher screen undersize conveyors transport the crushed material to an uncovered stockpile that has a live capacity of 12 hours, and a total capacity of 48 hours, of concentrator operation. Crushed material from the stockpile is reclaimed by a series of apron feeders onto two parallel conveyors running in two tunnels underneath the stockpile. Each conveyor feeds one HPGR line.

High Pressure Grinding Rolls (HPGR)
Each of the two HPGR units has a tyre size of 3.0 m in diameter by 2.0 m in width with an installed power of 7,500 kW. Each HPGR discharges into a bin and the material is conveyed to eight double deck dry vibrating classification screens (four per HPGR line). Each screening unit has an effective screening area of 4.27 m by 8.53 m (14’ width x 28’ length). The screen oversize from each HPGR line is conveyed back to the HPGR units for further size reduction. The screen undersize, with a P80 of approximately 2.0 mm, is conveyed to two parallel Ball Mill grinding lines. Appropriate surge capacity will be provided ahead of the HPGR units. Dust will be controlled along the dry circuit by dust collectors, exhaust fans and water sprays.

Primary Grinding Circuit
The HPGR product is conveyed by two parallel conveyors each feeding one, 8.5 m dia by 12.8 m long, Ball Mill. Each of the two Ball Mills is of gearless drive design (wrap-around) with an installed power of 22 MW. The ball mills are operated in closed circuit with hydrocyclones to obtain the target P80 grind size of 300 µm. Each Ball Mill discharges into its dedicated pump box equipped with pumps, each feeding one 1.2 m diameter, 12-place, hydrocyclone cluster. The hydrocyclone U/F is recirculated back to the ball mill while the O/F is fed to the primary magnetic separation circuit. This configuration applies to Phase 1 of the Project.

Fine Grinding Circuit
The fine grinding circuit consists of four, 5,500 KW, vertical stirred mills in open circuit with a resulting P80 of 25 µm. Each processing line has two mills. The fine grinding circuit is configured as an open circuit. The magnetic concentrate from the rougher and rougher / scavenger LIMS circuit is pumped to the bottom-fed, fine grinding mills after being diluted to the targeted solids density. The discharge from the fine grinding mills is then directed to the secondary magnetic separation circuit.

The process facility is designed to process 120,000 tpd, 365 days per year, for a total annual throughput of 43.8 Mt. The mine will operate on two 12-hour shifts per day. During the ramp-up period, a plant production capacity of 75% of the full production rate (32.85 Mtpa) was assumed for the schedule in order to allow for a gradual ramp-up to full production. This lower plant production rate also allows for commissioning and development of the tailings handling system.
Mining recovery is assumed at 97%.

The current PEA is based on primary and secondary crushing with screening, stockpiling, HPGR crushing with screening and ball milling to the primary grind size. This is followed by a primary magnetic separation step and its concentrate is subject to regrind to the final grind size of 25 µm and further magnetic separation. The fine magnetic concentrate is then subjected to a flotation step and the final concentrate is dewatered and briquetted into the final saleable pro ........