RE: potential 18 - 20 million oz tailingsWouldn't the issue with the tailings be capex?
They have a fairly low tpd mill. This works because they have very high grade ore. The tailings are going to be less than the average grade of new ore. Can you justify putting low grade ore thru the mill when you have better grade ore from Bellekeno? OR can you justify the millions it would take to upgrade the mill to higher capacity so you could do both?
I would guess that the tailings would only become feasible if/when they hit a bigger deposit that justified a bigger mill. Then the tailings could be incorporated into a mine plan to either help the mill to full capacity or fill in as the original mine became depleted. Since Bellekeno has a short reserve life, maybe they plan to do the tailings if they don't find a second mine by then.