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 structur ........

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.

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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 ........