The long-term open pit mining evaluation for the Cerro Caliche Project will provide a nominal rate of 8,000 mtpd for the initial two years of production with an increase to15,000 mtpd for the remaining Run of Mine (ROM) and average 60,239 ounces mined per year over seven (7) years and three and a half months for a total of 446, 959 ounces mined. The overall waste/Mineralized Material ratio was calculated at 2.08:1 from a total of 98.9 Mt of rock mined, of which 66.8 Mt is waste and the remaining 32.2 Mt is leach feed.
Assumed open pit mining methods will use front-end loaders and hydraulic excavator to load haul trucks for waste and mineralized material haulage. Mining activities will include site clearing, removal of growth medium (topsoil), free-digging, drilling, blasting, loading, hauling, and mining support activities.
Material within the pit will be generally blasted on a six m high bench. The stripped waste material will be placed in assigned dumps and lower-grade mineralized material will be placed into a designated stockpile area or areas as needed during operations despite there being no strategic stockpiling in the Life of Mine (LOM) production schedule.
The mine fleet equipment is assumed to be provided by the mining contractor. The exact fleet will be determined at the time of operation.
The mine will be scheduled to operate 360 days per year, with five days scheduled for non-operation (Scheduled Loss= SL); Utilized t ........
