The project is located within a geological region known as the Basin and Range province, near the boundary with another geological region known as the Arizona Transition Zone.

Structural Geology
The Resolution ore deposit, lying about 4,500 to 7,000 feet below Oak Flat, is located in a structural feature called the “Resolution Graben.” A graben is an area that is bounded on the sides by normal faults and is downthrust below those faults. The Resolution Graben is bounded by the West Boundary, North Boundary, South Boundary, Conley Springs, and Rancho Rio Faults.

Resolution ore deposit
The Resolution ore deposit is approximately 64 million years old and is a porphyry copper-molybdenum deposit. It lies approximately 4,500 to 7,000 feet below Oak Flat. As defined by the 1 percent copper shell, the deposit extends over an area of at least 1.2 miles in an east-northeast direction, and 0.9 mile in a north-northwest direction

Rock types with diabase, limestone, and local breccia host and control the strongest copper mineralization. Quartz-rich sedimentary rocks and Cretaceous-Tertiary intrusive rocks demonstrate the strongest molybdenum mineralization. The highest copper grades (greater than 3 percent) are located in the upper central portion of the deposit associated with a large hydrothermal breccia body and hosted primarily in breccia and diabase. The total mineral resource at the Resolution ore deposit is currently estimated (indicated ........

Resolution Copper proposes to mine the copper deposit under the Oak Flat Federal Parcel using a method known as panel caving.

Operational projections are removal of 1.4 billion tons of ore and production of 40 billion pounds of copper using a mining technique known as panel caving. Using this process, a network of shafts and tunnels is constructed below the ore body. Access to the infrastructure associated with the panel caving would be from vertical shafts in an area known as the East Plant Site, which would be developed adjacent to the Oak Flat Federal Parcel. This area would include mine shafts and a variety of surface facilities to support mining operations. This area currently contains two operating mine shafts, a mine administration building, and other mining infrastructure.

At full operation, underground mining would produce 132,000 to 165,000 tons of ore per day. Ore would be crushed underground before being transported to two production shafts that would hoist the ore to an offloading station approximately halfway to the surface. From the offloading station, a conveyor system would transport the ore underground to the concentrator complex at the West Plant Site, approximately 2.25 miles west of the East Plant Site.

Shafts and Hoist Facilities
Shafts and hoist facilities will be utilized for access to the underground workings and are integral to ore production and operations at East Plant Site.

At full production, ........

- subscription is required.

- subscription is required.