RE: reeguy.... Yes. Good observation. I heard James Barker once comment that moving ore downhill is the best mining scenario. A conveyor system would only require brakes and not a lot of power. Also, they say the Bokan deposit is vertical and suitable for gravity feed and block caving (mine above your head, and the rock falls into the conveyor track and goes down hill). During the cold war, they apparently just had a barge waiting at Kendrick Bay (at the bottom of the mountain) and off it went to market.