RE: The biggest thing...Yes, that's my understanding of how this type of mining is done (epithermal veining): you just go down, hit the veins and drift along wherever they lead. That's how the whole of the Comstock lode was mined. It is much easier to start in this fashion at Monte Cristo with the very economic, high-grade mineralization at shallow depth.
I think it's pretty clear where this is going: do some more work on the shallow, high-grade vien to assess its extent and then get mining. Then--as long as we're in the neighborhood {:- ) --hop on down to the main lode and take it where it leads, too. Who knows, maybe we haven't even seen the main and best veins, yet.
Anyone tell me if I'm way off on this?