The Bagdad mine is a porphyry copper deposit containing both sulfide and oxide mineralization. Chalcopyrite and molybdenite are the dominant primary sulfides and are the primary economic minerals in the mine. Chalcocite is the most common secondary copper sulfide mineral, and the predominant oxide copper minerals are chrysocolla, malachite and azurite.

Conventional drilling, blasting and stripping techniques are used to generate ore for processing, mineralized waste rock for leaching, and overburden materials from the open pit.

The available mining fleet consists of thirty 235-metric ton haul trucks loaded by five shovels with bucket sizes ranging from 30 to 48 cubic meters, which are capable of moving an average of 250,000 metric tons of material per day.

Blasted ore from the open pit that is directed to the mill undergoes primary, secondary, and tertiary crushing to reduce the ore size, increasing the surface area to facilitate the release of minerals. The crushed ore is fed to the concentrator where it is mixed with water in mills to achieve further size reduction. Reagents are added to the resulting slurry, which is conveyed to flotation cells. Air is bubbled through the flotation cell where the reagents and air create a froth to which select minerals attach and float to the surface; the froth is skimmed from the surface and collected as a concentrate.

The Bagdad operation includes a 75,000 metric ton-per-day concentrator that produces copper and molybdenum concentrates, an SX/EW plant that can produce up to 32 million pounds per year of copper cathode from solution generated by low-grade stockpile leaching, and a pressure leach plant to process molybdenum concentrates.