Copper mineralization at the Great Burnt Copper Deposit occurs within metavolcanic-metasedimentary rocks that include reworked tuffs, volcaniclastics and clastic sediments associated with mafic volcanics that are interpreted to have formed in a back-arc basin. This type of sedimentary rock-dominated volcanogenic massive sulphide (“VMS”) mineralization has historically been classified as “Besshi-type” (Bond and Delaney, 2005), after the Besshi district of Japan. More recently, this type of mineralization has also been classified as mafic-siliciclastic or mafic-pelitic VMS (Galley et al., 2007).

Gold is a component of mineralization at the South Pond Deposit, the South Pond Gold Zones, and has been identified at the Great Burnt Copper Deposit itself. The South Pond Gold Zones occur within a strongly foliated area that has been termed the “South Pond Deformation Zone”. Whether the gold mineralization is syngenetic or epigenetic in origin remains to be determined.

MINERALIZATION
Four deposits of copper ± gold mineralization have been delineated on the Great Burnt Property: 1) Great Burnt Copper Deposit; 2) South Pond “A” Copper-Gold Zone; 3) South Pond “B” Gold Zone; and 4) End Zone Copper Prospect. The mineralization in each of these four deposits plus the Northern Zone, is described below. It is the Great Burnt Copper Deposit and the South Pond “A” Deposit that are subject to the Mineral Resource Estimates.

Great Burnt Copper Deposit

The Great Burnt Copper Deposit will initially be mined by a 20 m deep open pit (“OP”) followed by underground (“UG”) ramp access and longhole sublevel retreat, cut-and-fill (“C&F”), and drift-and-fill (“D&F”) mining methods. Underground diluted production includes both development and stopes. The South Pond Deposit will be mined by a 25 m deep open pit.

Access to the Great Burnt Copper Deposit will be via a 5 m high by 4.5 m wide -15% ramp from surface to a vertical depth of 288 m. A conceptualized mining plan has been developed using open pit and underground mechanized trackless mining equipment. The primary underground mining method will be conventional longitudinal longhole sublevel retreat, with cemented rock (“CRF”) backfill. Underground longhole sublevels will be developed at 15 m vertical intervals. Sublevel drifts in mineralization will be developed the full length of the Great Burnt Copper Deposit. These drifts will provide access for the successive operations of slot raise development, blasthole drilling, blasting and loading, and backfill placement. The average thickness of the Great Burnt longhole mineralization is 4.3 m. Remotely-operated underground load-haul-dump (“LHD”) units will remove broken mineralization from the stopes. The stopes will be backfilled primarily with CRF backfill, and in some cases supplemented with waste rock.

Initially a steady state production rate of 1,000 tpd of open pit mineralization will begin to be mined star ........

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