The Galore Creek property is interpreted to be an example of an alkalic porphyry copper–gold–silver system.

The Project is situated within the Stikine Terrane, an exotic terrane accreted to the ancestral North American craton. A sequence of Permian, Mississippian and Devonian age calc-alkaline and bimodal flows and volcaniclastic rocks, interbedded carbonate and minor shale and chert, termed the Stikine assemblage, form the basement of the terrane. Unconformably overlying the Stikine assemblage is a succession of Lower to Middle Triassic sedimentary and upper Triassic volcanic rocks.

The Galore Creek Syenite Complex, of Tertiary age, is centered in the west fork of Galore Creek and is 5 km in length and 2 km in width. The deposits are hosted by potassium-enriched volcanic rocks and pipe-like breccias adjacent to syenite stocks and dykes. They are manto-shaped, and trend north to northeast, following either, or both, syenite contacts and structural breaks. To date, 14 deposits and prospects have been identified, five of which, the Central Zone, Southwest Zone, Junction Zone West Fork Zone and Middle Creek Zone are of economic interest.

Disseminated pyrite is the most abundant sulphide mineral. Chalcopyrite and bornite in the ratio 10:1 are the main copper minerals. Sphalerite and galena are associated with garnet-rich areas and trace amounts of molybdenite, native silver, native gold and tetrahedrite have been noted (Allen, 1966). Magnetite oc ........

The proposed Project will be a conventional, large-tonnage, open-pit operation with approximately 528 Mt of ore processed over the life-of-mine, at a nominal daily throughput of 95,000 t/d.

The mine plan for Galore Creek deposits was based on mining six separate phases that were developed from detailed designs based on optimized WhittleTM pit shells for four open pits, at Central, Junction, West Fork, and Southwest.

The production schedule contains one year of pre-production and envisages a mine life of 17.6 years, exclusive of that pre-production year. Annual mine production of ore and waste will peak at 136 Mt/a with a LOM waste/ore stripping ratio of 2.16-to-1.

The mine sequence for Galore Creek deposits is based on mining the six separate phases. The three-phase Central pit is scheduled to produce ore throughout the mine life with the satellite, Southwest, West Fork, and Junction pits supplementing ore production at various stages of the mine life. The Southwest pit will begin production at the start of the schedule to take advantage of lower waste stripping requirements and higher grades. The Southwest pit is also located south of the dendritic water flow allowing additional time for water diversion measures to be implemented. Mining of the Junction pit will begin later in the mine life, as it is located in a higher, more operationally challenging, area. Mining in the Junction pit will occur after mine operations have had several years o ........

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The design for the process plant is based on processing the mined material through a conventional crushing, grinding and flotation plant using standard proven processes and equipment. The plant will handle a blend of material from the various zones of the Galore Creek deposit with approximately 80% coming from the Central Zone. Although the characteristic of materials from the various zones are different, the process applied is the same. Only the process conditions, mainly slurry densities and reagent dosages change for the different materials.

Run-of-mine (ROM) material will be delivered by 345 t- capacity mine haul trucks to the primary crushing plant, located in Galore Creek Valley. The crushing plant is designed to operated at 365 d/a with an average utilization of 70%. Crushed material will be conveyed to a surge pile in the East Fork of the Galore Creek Valley, then by overland conveyors to the coarse material stockpile adjacent to the grinding and flotation plants in ........