The Cactus deposit is a portion of a large porphyry copper system that has been dismembered and displaced by Tertiary extensional faulting. Porphyry copper deposits form in areas of shallow magmatism within subduction-related tectonic environments (Berger et al., 2008). Cactus has typical characteristics of a porphyry copper deposit which Berger et al. (2008) define as follows:
- One wherein copper-bearing sulfides are localized in a network of fracture-controlled stockwork veinlets and as disseminated grains in the adjacent altered rock matrix.
- Alteration and mineralization at 1 km to 4 km depth are genetically related to magma reservoirs emplaced into the shallow crust (6 km to over 8 km), predominantly intermediate to silicic in composition, in magmatic arcs above subduction zones.
- Intrusive rock complexes that are emplaced immediately before porphyry deposit formation and that host the deposits are predominantly in the form of upright-vertical cylindrical stocks and/or complexes of dikes.
- Zones of phyllic-argillic and marginal propylitic alteration overlap or surround a potassic alteration assemblage.
- Copper may also be introduced during overprinting phyllic-argillic alteration events.

Alteration and Mineralization
The dominant hypogene alteration assemblages in the deposit are phyllic and potassic. Phyllic alteration is characterized by quartz, sericite, and clay, but quartz and sericite predominate. Secondary silica in t ........

The Cactus Project considers mill feed originating from three sources: the existing surface Stockpile Project of previously mined material, an open pit operation, and an underground operation. To determine appropriate mining approach, mine planning exercises were conducted consisting of combinations of processing and mining strategies. For this PEA, the outcome was to adopt a layered approach that considered initial Stockpile Project mining concurrent with Cactus West open pit stripping and early production for 1-4 years before Cactus West achieving steady state production by year 5. Once the pit reaches a suitable depth, development and early production of Cactus East via a Transverse Longhole Stoping (TLS) method commences in year 6 and achieves steady state production by year 8. Complete extraction of the mineable resource is to take 17 years.

The open pit and Stockpile Project will be a truck and loader / shovel mining method.

Stockpile Project and Open Pit
The Stockpile Project contains approximately 81.2 million tons of low-grade material and 22.8 million tons of waste. A similar but smaller sized equipment fleet will be used to move the low-grade material out of the Stockpile Project as that used for the open pit.

The open pit expansions will provide a total of approximately 71.8 million tons of mineralized material and 101.9 million tons of waste. Based on the planned production rate, the primary equipment fleet will consist of a ........

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