LION COPPER & GOLD CORP.

13.4 PIT DESIGN

The pit designs vary by area. For Yerington, a multi-phase approach was developed to allow the mining of the first two phases within the current wall slopes. This provides initial feed material while the sides of the pit are pushed back, allowing the overall pit to go deeper than previously mined.

The VLT area is mined in its entirety. The sulfide heap facility will grow into the area currently occupied by the VLT. Material that is shown to be economic is placed in the oxide heap leach facility. The waste material still contains copper, but is not currently economically viable at the copper price used. The waste material will also be placed on the oxide heap facility (Yerington East HLF) to store this material on a liner for the longer term. By doing this, there may be an opportunity to leach the waste material in the future, should the price of copper rise, possibly making this material economic.

MacArthur pit designs are single-phase but composed of different areas. The Gallagher pit is smaller and does not afford room for phasing. North Ridge can join with MacArthur, so it was mined in two phases, with the second phase connecting to MacArthur. The MacArthur Area has already been opened with previous mining, and mining a larger area allows for efficient mining to occur, enhancing mining cost efficiency.

Phase tonnages and grades are displayed in Table 13.7.