The Ray Mine is located in eastern Pinal County, Arizona, about 80 miles southeast of the city of Phoenix. Ray consists of a large classical porphyry copper deposit.

The Ray sulfide system is developed in a variety of Precambrian rocks and Laramide intrusives. The bulk of the hypogene sulfides pyrite, chalcopyrite and molybdenite— occur in schist, the Ruin Granite (a quartz monzonite), quartzite and diabase, all Precambrian in age. Diabase is the youngest Precambrian rock and occurs as dikes and sills in all the older “country” rocks; it is the most receptive rock to copper mineralization and hosts the bulk of the ore at Ray. A series of Laramide (late Cretaceous) intermediate to acidic composition dikes and stocks, representing at least 12 different rock types, intruded all the older rocks. All Laramide rock types have been affected by the later Ray hypogene sulfide system and are cut by sulfide veinlets. Post-mineral Oligocene, Miocene and later volcanic and clastic rocks unconformably overlie part of the sulfide body. Major high-angle, northwest-trending normal faults extend through the deposit area, intersected by major northeast trending faults at the north end of the deposit with major deformation occurring before, after and perhaps during intrusion of ore-age dikes and stocks.

Hypogene mineral zoning is concentric, with a central low-grade core characterized by low total sulfides and a high cpy/py ratio. A higher grade zone (the “ore zone”) surrou ........

The Ray mine is an open pit mine.

The current footprint of the Ray open pit is elliptical in shape and measures 4.3 kilometers from east to west and 2.7 kilometers from north to south, with the elevation of the highest bench being 915 meters and the lowest bench being 260 meters above sea level.

The mine currently has three designated pit areas, namely the Sonora, Poorman, and Calumet. Diesel or electric-powered drills drill approximately 60-foot deep holes into the mineralized pit benches. The holes are used to collect samples to allow the assay of the copper ore and determine the ore’s metallurgical characteristics. Blasting agents is introduced into the hole for blasting. The blasts fractures and loosens the ore. Electric shovels load the blasted material onto haul trucks which transports the ore to a primary crusher, leachable ore to leach dump areas, and waste material to the waste rock dumps.

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