The mine, which cost A$1.15 billion to develop,[2] was projected to produce 100,000 tonnes of copper and 115,000 ounces of gold in concentrates per year.

[6] The development included an open-pit mine, a conventional grinding and flotation processing plant, a permanent village to accommodate the workforce and construction of a haulage road, power line and bore field.

[citation needed] The mine was part of the sale of its assets by OZ Minerals to China Minmetals, majority-owned by the Chinese state, but was blocked by the Australian Government, which cited national security concerns since Prominent Hill was within a sensitive military area.

[4] The deposit is located in the Gawler Craton and it is hosted mainly in a fault zone where Hiltaba Suite granites overthrust a Mesoproterozoic volcano-sedimentary sequence.

It consists of a breccia containing host rock clasts (dolomite, sandstone, andesite) which is intensively hematite, chlorite and sericite altered.