A PuzzlerHow do you fan out and drill two holes from the same collar which hit 14 gms earlier and get intervals of 1.2 and 1.8 gms? Yeah, I would say the sceptics have an argument that this is disappointing.
For the optimists (and I confess to being incurable), I would argue that the geotechnicians nailed it the first time around with an orientation that neatly fit the expected mineralisation. Good for them. The fact that we didn't get much more than a halo in the fan means merely that the strike and dip of the deposition needs to be revised.
Going back to the basics, the discovery hole gave evidence of a deposition from a VMS underwater vent eons ago and the crust has been folded and uplifted since. The blanket of mineral deposition downcurrent from the pipe is still there somewhere. It can't simply disappear.
Imagine a mattress from a lounger lying on the ground. Now pick up a section and twist it. Now imagine trying to hit the sweet spot with an arrow from the same spot that you shot the first arrow but in a different direction. See how tough it is no matter how long the lounger is? That's our problem IMHO. The boys have to figure out how the current was flowing way back when and what happened when the plates collided. Simple? Not.