The Caballo Blanco zinc, silver, lead mine, situated south of Potosi, is located in the Jayaquila – Victoria corridor, a 5-7 km north-south structural zone with three sectors, from north to south, the Colquchaquita, Reserva, and Tres Amigos mines. They are not described in the published literature. They are hosted by volcanic rocks of the Kari-Kari volcanic complex, with dimensions of 32 km north-south and 12 km wide, located on the SE side of the Los Frailes felsic volcanic field that covers an area of 8,500 km2 at altitudes of 4,000 – 5,200 masl. The history started with intrusion of small granitoids at about 25 Ma at Kumurana, at the southern end of the Kari massif, and Azanaques. These were followed by the formation of Kari at about 20 Ma that is interpreted to be a resurgent caldera with welded ignimbrite fill. Ash flows, domes and stocks formed in the Cebadillas episode at 17-10 Ma, including the Cerro Rico dome with Ag-Sn mineralization at 13.8 Ma (Zartman & Cunningham, 1995; Cunningham et al., 1996; Rice et al., 2005).

The rocks of the Kari complex are felsic, peraluminous, and rich in garnet, cordierite and tourmaline (Schneider, 1987).

Mineralization in its generality is characterized by being housed in philonian structures divided into three domain orientations:

1. Oriented at N 10° to 20° E, are Colquechaquita (Karina, Viviana, Camila), and some veins of Tres Amigos (Catalina, Milagros Este and Central);

2. Oriented N 1 ........

The Caballo Blanco project consists of three separate mines and one process plant operating as one to produce Zinc and Lead concentrates. An Important part of the supporting infrastructure includes 2 off-site power plants that produce supplemental electric power to the mines. The mines are relatively close together and located as follows:

Reserva and Tres Amigos Mines are located 31 km southeast of the city of Potosi, in the Canton Concepcion of the first section of the Tomas Frias Province of the Department of Potosi, at an average elevation of 4,536 masl.

Coquechaquita Mine is located 30 km southeast of the city of Potosi, in the Canton Concepcion of the first section of the Tomas Frias Province of the Department of Potosi, at an average elevation of 4,520 masl.

The Don Diego Process plant is located about 23 km Northeast of the city of Potosi, in the Don Diego Canton, Municipality of Chaqui, Cornelio Saavedra Province, of the Department of Potosi. At an elevation of 3,550 masl.

There is a 60 km drive from the mines to the Don Diego Processing plant.

As a unit, Caballo Blanco produces about 850 t/d of mineralized material. Approximately 60% of mine production is generated by conventional shrinkage and cut & fill methods. The remainder is produced by more modern trackless sublevel stoping. Run-of-mine mineralized material is hauled to the Don Diego Process plant in dump trucks.

Although each mine is currently ........

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