The Tres Cruces property hosts gold deposits that have characteristics of a low- to intermediate-sulphidation type epithermal system. Epithermal gold-silver deposits are shallowly formed vein, stockwork, disseminated, and replacement deposits that are mined primarily for their gold and silver contents; some deposits also contain substantial resources of lead, zinc, copper, and/or mercury. Epithermal gold-silver deposits range in size from 10,000 to >1 billion tonnes and have gold contents of 0.1 to >30.0 g/t, and silver contents of <1 to several thousand g/t. Although epithermal deposits are commonly known for their high gold grades, many bulk tonnage deposits with as little as 1 g/t gold or less are presently being exploited by open-pit mining.

Gold mineralization at Tres Cruces is mainly associated with pyrite, with occasional traces of other sulphide minerals. The auriferous pyrite is very fine grained, gray to blackish gray (commonly called "fine black pyrite”) and is present as disseminations and in very thin veinlets that locally form areas of stockworks (Macedo et al., 2012). Black pyrite also occurs as rims on earlier pyrite forming a colloform-banded texture. Clemson (Battle Mountain Canada Ltd., Tres Cruces Staff, 1999b) noted colloform-banding for this stage of pyrite, often with repetitive oscillatory bands of sooty and crystalline pyrite. The late-stage black pyrite is directly associated with the main-stage gold event. Early formed, non-gold-bea ........

Preliminary mine designs have been developed for mining oxide and transition mineralization for heap leach processing at the Tres Cruces Oxide Project. The designs and production schedule have been based upon Indicated and Inferred Mineral Resources. The resource model described in Section 14 was imported to Hexagon Mining - Mineplan 3D software where a Lerchs Grossmann algorithm was applied to an NSR model to determine possible pit limits.

The mine plan was developed to mine the oxide and transition mineralization from four phases. The assumed processing rate was nominally 6,000 t/d over seven years. The overall mining rate ramps up from 6 Mt/a to 9 Mt/a in Year 2 of the plan after two years of pre-production stripping. The total mine life is nine years with an overall life of mine strip ratio of 2.89:1.

The mine will be a conventional diesel equipment truck and excavator/wheel loader operation. Waste rock will be placed in a storage facility immediately south of the open pit. A small stockpile will be located immediately adjacent to the primary crusher and used as required to ensure a steady supply of mineralized material to the processing facility.

The Tres Cruces mine will be a conventional excavator/wheel loader operation using 50 t capacity offroad trucks. The bench height will be variable 5 m in mineralized material and 10 m in waste. Designs have been prepared for 10 m single bench between berms. Road allowances have been made f ........

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