The La Fortuna deposit of the El Morro Project can be classified as a typical copper-gold porphyry deposit. Porphyry copper-gold deposits are associated with the intrusion of multiple phases of similar composition porphyritic rocks into the country host rocks and the fluids that accompany them during the transition and cooling from magma to rock. Successive envelopes of hydrothermal alteration typically enclose a core of ore minerals disseminated in breccia zones, stockwork hairline fractures and veins. The deposits typically have an outer chlorite mineral alteration zone. Quartz-sericite alteration typically occurs closer to the center and may overprint. A central potassic alteration zone is commonly associated with most of the mineralization. Fractures are often filled or coated by sulfides, or by quartz veins and veinlets with sulfides. The upper portions of the deposit are often subjected to supergene enrichment whereby the metals in the upper portion of the deposit are dissolved and carried down to below the water table where they are precipitated.

At the El Morro Project, centres of mineralization have been identified at El Morro, El Negro and La Fortuna which is the most significant. At La Fortuna, mineralization is developed in an Eocene to Oligocene multiphase porphyry system that has intruded volcanic rocks of the Paleocene to Early Eocene Los Altares Formation.

The mineralized multiphase porphyry system is a vertically dipping cylindrical ........

The El Morro Project will be an open pit truck/shovel operation. The open pit has six phases. The ultimate pit will measure approximately 2.0 km east to west, 2.5 km north to south, and have a maximum depth of approximately 825 m. The Main Waste Rock Facility (WRF) is located to the south of the open pit. The Tailings Storage Facility (TSF) is located to the south and west of the open pit and downstream of the Main WRF.

Mining will be with conventional open pit mining equipment ramping up from 127 million tonnes in year 1 to a nominal 140 million tonnes for years 2 through 7 years, and decreasing thereafter. Waste and ore are mined on 15 m benches.

The mine operations are typical truck/shovel open pit operations. The mining fleet is based on an initial fleet of twenty-eight 363 t haul trucks increasing to forty-two in the later years as the haulage distance increases. Loading operations are initially conducted using four 55.8 m3 electric shovels and two 23.7 m3 wheel loaders in the first year of pre-stripping, increasing to five 55.8 m3 electric shovels and two 23.7 m3 wheel loaders in the second year of operation.

The pit design is based on 15 m benches with most areas double benched for a total height of 30 m. Slopes vary based on location.

MINE DESIGN PARAMETERS:
- Haul Road Width - 38 m;
- Haul Road Grade - 10%;
- Slope Angles: Face Angles - 62°-67°, Interramp Angles - 40°-49°;
- Mining Bench Height - 15 m; ........

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Processing is based on a sulphide flotation concentrator. Oxide material is treated as waste rock. Separation of the ore types is done by the mine department based on blast hole sample analysis. Some rehandling sulphide ores is necessary in the run-of-mine (ROM) stockpiles. The sulphide mill processing is based on feeding 90,000 tpd of sulphide ores for a period of 18 years.

For 90,000 tpd of nominal ore throughput, a process plant utilization of 92% and 63% solids in the high density tailings pulp, the desalinated water requirement is 521 L/s. The desalination plant is located at Punta Cachos on the coast. A 202 km, 30 in. diameter pipeline carries water to the concentrator and to the minesite at 4,000 masl. A potable water treatment plant will be provided for safety showers, camp, and administration areas.

The concentrate pipeline route follows the new access road. The pipeline is a 156 mm (6 in) steel pipe. It starts at the holding tanks at the concentrator pl ........