The presence of magnetite (iron) in the breccias hosting the copper mineralization suggests a deposit type classified as IOCG (Iron Oxide Copper Gold). However, there are many features that do not match the proposed IOCG deposit type. Among these is the presence of high-sulfur mineral assemblage (chalcopyrite-pyrite), rather than the low-sulfur copper sulfide mineral assemblage characteristic of the IOCG deposit type (chalcopyrite - bornite - chalcocite), as well as the high quartz content, the absence of pervasive hydrothermal alteration of the host rock, in particular sodic (albite) alteration, and the absence of gold.

As such, the Boa Esperança copper deposit is a variant of an IOCG deposit type.

Mineralization consists of a series of brecciated zones, which are aligned N60°-70°E and incline in a SE direction (60°-70°SE). However, another alignment of about N40°E was observed in the field and coincides with the elongation of the Boa Esperança hill.

Boa Esperança is a copper deposit, averaging approximately 0.95% Cu diluted grade within the minable pit. The mineralization is close to the surface and the resource is appropriate for an open pit mining operation.

The final pit design in this feasibility phase of the Boa Esperança project totals 19.5 Mt of Proven and Probable Mineral Reserves with an average diluted grade of 0.95% Cu. From this total, 17.5 Mt is classified as high grade material with an average Cu content of 1.02% and the remaining 2.0 Mt as low grade material, with a grade of 0.34% Cu.

Waste materials amount to 37.7 Mt, which is comprised of 19.6 Mt of saprolite, 8.9 Mt of weathered rock and 9.2 Mt of fresh rocks. The Life of Mine (LOM) strip ratio of waste to ore is 1.93.

The operation of the Boa Esperança mine will utilize conventional open pit mining techniques and small size mining equipment to mine a total of 57.2 Mt of material over the life of the mine. This comprises 19.5 Mt of ore and 37.7 Mt of waste materials. A total of 5.1 Mt of ore will be moved from the stockpiles to the plant.

The main mine equipment selected for the Boa Esperança project consists of 4.0 m3 hydraulic
excavators, on-highway 35t trucks and drills.

It has been assumed that 100% of weathered and fresh rocks and 10% of saprolites will be drilled and blasted in 10-meter-high benches. Ore will be hauled to the primary crusher or to the ROM stockpiles close to the primary crusher. Waste materials will be hauled to different dumps and destinations. Grade control will be performed through drilling, sampling and assaying materials within the pit limits using the production drills.

The mine is scheduled to operate in three 8 hour shifts, 7 days per week, 365 days per year. Whenever mine production needs to be reduced or interrupted, the primary crusher will be fed from the regularization pile using a front-end loader.

Run-of-mine (ROM) ore will be trucked from the mine directly to a 60 t hopper fitted with a grizzly having 600 mm x 600 mm openings. The ore will go to a feeder and discharged in an inclined grizzly with bars spaced at 100 mm. The grizzly oversize will feed a Metso C125 jaw crusher (4005-BR-01), which will crush the ore to minus 185 mm, and discharge onto a sacrifice conveyor and then in a collection conveyor. The collection conveyor will be fitted with a belt scale to record wet tonnes crushed and will transport the ore to a 7,260 m³ conical coarse ore stockpile. The ore will be taken out by vibrating chutes directly to the first screening and secondary crushing circuit.

Primary crushed ore reclaimed by the stockpile will be conveyed with a conveyor that will be fitted with a metal detector and tramp metal magnet, and which will discharge in the primary double-deck vibrating screen. The top deck will have 60 mm openings and the bottom deck will have 20 mm openings. Screen oversize will feed a Metso HP-400 cone crusher (4010-BR-001). The ore minus 55 mm will feed two silos 55 m³ each that will discharge across secondary double-deck vibration screen. The top deck will have 10 mm openings and the bottom deck will have 3 mm openings. The first deck oversize, +10 mm, will be conveyed to two silos of 45 m³ each and then will feed the tertiary crusher HP-400.

The 3 mm screen undersize will be conveyed directly to the 3,200 m³ live capacity pile (13,000 m³ total capacity) grinding fine ore stockpile, which has been designed as an ore homogenization stockpile fed by a tripper conveyor system with a belt scale which will serve to blend the ore. It was foreseen a 20,000 m³ emergency stockpile that will be reclaimed, if necessary, by six vibratory feeders (two stand by).

The intermediate material (-10 mm + 3 mm) from the secondary screens will be transported to the wet tertiary double-deck screening Metso LH2448. Its undersize will be pumped to the ball mill pulp box. Its oversize will feed the jigging or, in case of jigging stop, will be conveyed direct to the grinding ore homogenization stockpile.

Crushed ore (- 3 mm) and the jig concentrate (between 3 mm and 10 mm) will be reclaimed from the ore homogenization stockpile by eight vibratory feeders (two stand by) that will discharge onto a collection conveyor located in a tunnel beneath the stockpile, and then conveyed to a 70 m³ fine ore bin ahead of the grinding circuit. Ore will be withdrawn from the fine ore bin onto the ball mill feed conveyor, which will be fitted with a belt scale. The grinding circuit will consist of a single Metso 18 ft diameter x 23 ft long overflow ball mill (3.310 kW) operated in closed circuit with 8 Derrick screens (stack-size model-five panels) to produce a final grind of 80% passing 110 microns (µm). It is expected that the ball mill will be operated with a maximum 40% ball charge volume at a slurry density of 75% solids. A Bond ball mill work index (Wi) of 17,6 kWh/t has been used for design and sizing of the grinding circuit.

The Boa Esperança concentrator has been designed to process 2.308 Mt of copper ore per year at a nominal processing rate 9,033.6 tonnes per day (t/d) at primary crushing feed and incorporates equipment and process unit operations considered standard for the industry.

The material retained in the tertiary screening (+3 mm) will be submitted to the jigging process. The reversible conveyor will discharge into two silos installed in parallel which feed two pneumatic jigs, Kuttner package, ALL JIG G / F-3000X1860. Each jig is equipped with an air blower. The jigs waste will be directed to dewatering screens and the material will contain 6% moisture. This material can be sent to the waste pile or to the emergency tailing stack. Jigs concentrates will be directed to dewatering screens that reduces ore moisture to 6%. After that the concentrate will be directed to the homogenization stockpile by the tripper conveyor system. All the water from the screens underflow and the two jigs, ........