• A block cave mining operation.


• A block cave mine with a small open pit and blending of ore feed processed to produce one copper flotation concentrate.


• A block cave mine with a modest-sized open pit mine with ore feed processed separately and the two copper concentrates blended to produce an acceptable product.


• A large open pit with blended ore feed to produce one copper flotation concentrate.

Gemcom Software International Inc (GEMCOM) completed a conceptual block cave design and scheduling model using their own PC-BC software with some input from a Philippine-based consultant mining engineer with considerable experience in such operations. The conceptual design and scheduling for a large open pit was undertaken by Australian Mine Design and Development Pty Ltd (AMDAD) using Whittle software. Both these studies were used by Hellman and Schofield Pty Ltd in its resource report. Refer to the Resources/Reserves page for details on the Mineral Resource.

SRK Consulting Pty Ltd (SRK), with the assistance of Xstrata Queensland Limited, completed a Desktop Study on the geotechnical aspects of mining the deposit for both the underground block caving and open pit. The SRK report did not foresee any major geotechnical issues with an open pit.

Preliminary `order-of-magnitude` financial modeling of the options indicates that a large open pit with certain assumptions in respect of the marketability provided the most viable economic outcome.

Further studies carried out by Xstrata and incoporating the latest ore resource estimate determined the best financial outcome was drerived from a large open pit at an ore production rate of 66Mtpa.