The journey between discovering a mineral deposit and bringing a mine into production resembles an action-packed road trip. The typical mining journey consists of ten basic milestones that must be reached to achieve full production.

1. Geological mapping. Identify and outline the deposit at surface.

2. Geophysical surveying. Delineate the deposit's size and structure at depth.

3. Sample assaying. Conduct assays to define mineralogy, composition and metallic associations of the deposit samples.

4. Diamond drilling. Further delineate the deposit at depth to verify its size, shape, structure and mineralogy.

5. NI 43-101 estimates. Use information from the foregoing steps to produce NI 43-101-approved mineral resource estimates.

6. Conceptual flowsheet. Create a flowsheet that describes the most effective metallurgical process for treating the ore minerals.

7. Scoping study. Make a preliminary assessment of the project's economic viability using information from the foregoing steps.

8. Bench-scale testing. Test and confirm the metallurgical process at the scale of a laboratory 'bench' using small ore samples.

9. Pilot study. Confirm and refine the flowsheet and metallurgical process using larger ore samples to simulate a full-size mill.

10. Feasibility study. Confirm the economic viability of mine production under current market conditions, given the pilot study results and NI 43-101 mineral resource estimates.

Adex has already reached many of these milestones (see  in table below) en route to full production at its Mount Pleasant property by 2015. The remaining milestones () are scheduled for completion over the next few years.

The sequence of milestones reflects our low-risk, staged approach to mine development. First we bring the Fire Tower Zone (FTZ) into production, focusing on the tungsten and molybdenum markets. Then we use metal revenues from the Fire Tower Zone to start up the North Zone (NZ), which enables us to produce tin, zinc and indium. 

Milestone	FTZ	NZ	Date	Details
Geological mapping and geophysical surveying			Before 2008	Conducted by previous mine owners
Sample assaying			1950s to present	Conducted by Adex and previous mine owners
Diamond drilling			2008	Adex drilled a total of 13,300 m (previous owners drilled a total of 158,761 m since 1950s)
NI-43-101 mineral resource estimates			2008	Click here for report
			2009	Click here for report
Scoping study			2008	Click here for report summary
			2010	Click here for report
Bench-scale work			2008	Tested tungsten gravity process
			2008	Tested tin gravity process
			2009	Tested flotation process on raw ore to produce zinc–indium concentrate and tin concentrate
			2009	Tested hydromet process on zinc concentrate to extract zinc metal and indium sponge
			Pending	Test smelting process on tin concentrate to produce tin metal
Pilot study			2010 and early 2011	Confirmed flotation process for producing zinc–indium concentrate and tin concentrate
			Pending	Confirm hydromet process for producing zinc metal and indium sponge
Diamond drilling FTZ			Early 2012	Conduct confirmation drilling to upgrade mineral resource from inferred to indicated
Metallurgical feasibility testing			Q3 2012 (FTZ)	Produce definitive feasibility study
Production decision and start-up			2013 - 2015	Includes design and construction