The Cadia Hill deposit is a sheeted quartz vein system located almost entirely within the quartz monzonite porphyry phase of the Cadia Intrusive Suite.

The predominant alteration is propylitic (chlorite-epidote) with narrow domains of structurally-controlled phyllic (sericitic) alteration. Mineralization is in part related to chlorite matrix hydrothermal breccias that cut the deposit. Unusually, compared to the other mineralized systems in the area, potassic alteration is confined to K-feldspar rich vein haloes and to some quartz veins.

The vein system forms a broad, 300 m wide tabular envelope that dips 60° to the southwest. Chalcopyrite with lesser bornite, pyrite and gold occur in the quartz veins and as disseminations throughout the intrusive wallrock.

A feasibility study on mining the Cadia Hill deposit was completed in 1996 with project funding approved in September that year. The feasibility study open pit design, which included a number of planned cutbacks.

The process plant comprises a crushing, grinding and flotation circuit to produce a gold rich copper concentrate. A gravity circuit recovers a proportion of the gold which is smelted on site to produce gold doré.