Open pit mining Some need to realise that to have a open pit that is 320m deep the hole needs to be a minimum of 6400m in diameter for a slope of 45 degrees, or 4miles. That is a huge hole and represents a huge waste dump. Never going to happen for this deposit. This type of mining only is used for totally different deposits. I have worked in several, a couple of asbestos mines as well many iron ore mines.
An undregroung operation, however, can use excavated sections to place ongoing waste rock. This is commonly done.
Trenching is an option for the near surface ore and will definitely happen at some time, question being will they start to do this before they have a better idea of the area of mineralization. This question will be answered by the person they hired months ago to work on this very option.