Middle Zone and La Cantera constitute two of the four drill-tested mineralized porphyry intrusive and breccia bodies on the La Mina property. In both deposits, the intrusive centers are occupied by a series of porphyry stocks and related breccias that together make up porphyry copper gold deposits. In the case of La Cantera, the core of the deposit consists of a late, barren porphyritic stock resulting in a typical “doughnut” pattern (plan view) in its concentric relationship to the surrounding mineralized units. In the case of Middle Zone, the barren core is an amorphous feature that appears to have intruded preferentially along pre-existing planes of weakness. Various intrusive/breccias phases were involved in development of the porphyry deposits alongwith multi-phase alteration mineralization events, as most-often expressed by pronounced densities of veinlets cross-cutting the diamond drill core. Hydrothermal magnetite is an important gangue mineral associated with gold and copper, and potassic alteration is an important alteration type associated with higher gold and copper grades.

The La Cantera Deposit is slightly elliptical in plan view (long axis NW-SE), measuring approximately 200 m by 190 m in plan view on surface with a depth extent of 350-600 m based on the results from 24 drill holes. Average grades are close to 0.8g/t Au with 0.3% Cu. The Middle Zone Deposit lies approximately 400 m north of La Cantera, and consists of a more pronounced elliptical body in plan view (long axis NE-SW), which remains open at depths of over 600 m, based on the results of 39 drill holes for a total of 14,159 meters. Fault displacement appears to have offset the western and eastern lobes of mineralization, and faulting appears to bound the western edge. Mineralization here is of two types. The first is high copper-gold ratio, similar to what is seen at La Cantera. The second is high gold with relatively low copper. Overall, the grades are lower than La Cantera, close to 0.5g/t Au with 0.1-0.2% Cu, over true widths of up to 100 m.

MMC recommends that conventional truck and shovel open pit mining methods be used in order to best exploit the resources at the La Mina Project. This approach is well suited for these near surface, disseminated deposits. Mine schedules in Section 14 have been developed based on Inferred resources.

Open pit mining will take place two distinct areas: La Cantera and Middle Zone. La Cantera consists of a single pit mined in three phases. Middle zone consists of a single phase pit. The pit and phase outlines are shown in. Dilution was assumed to be included in the model blocks, given the size of the blocks relative to mineralized zones and loading equipment. Mining would take place on 10m benches using haul roads with maximum 10% grades for access.

A conventional jaw crusher facility will be designed to crush run-of-mine (ROM) material to reduce the incoming feed material from the open pit mine at a total average feed rate of 650 t/h.

The major equipment and facilities in this area includes:

-Stationary grizzly,
-ROM surge bin,
-Vibrating grizzly,
-Jaw crusher,
-Secondary feed stockpile,
-Belt feeders,
-Conveyor belts, metal detectors, self-cleaning magnets and belt tear detectors,
-Belt scale,
-Dust collection system.

Haul trucks from the mine will dump ROM material onto a ROM surge stockpile. Material will be fed by a front-end loader dumping feed material into the 60-tonne capacity ROM surge bin. The surge bin will be equipped with a stationary grizzly with 600 mm × 600 mm square apertures to prevent oversize rocks from entering the circuit. A rock breaker will be available to break up any rocks larger than 600 mm which cannot pass through the stationar ........