RE:What deems a mineable deposit?It's not a mineable deposit until a postitve feasibility study has been completed. There is no specific number of holes required, but usually we're talking hundreds of holes to delineate what is really there.
The process often goes something like this: Do some prospecting and find something that looks likely. Bring in some drills and find something there. Drill some more to see how big and continuous it is. Drill some more and do a resource estimate. Drill some more and update the resource estimate. Drill some more, do some metallurgy to see if you can separate the good stuff from the bad, and do a preliminary economic estimate (PEA). If the PEA says it's still worth pursuing, do some more drilling to upgrade the resource estimate some more, do more metalurgical and environmental studies, do more drilling, and do a pre-feasibility study (PFS). If the PFS says it's still worth pursuing, do more drilling, more detailed studies, more drilling, more studies, and finally a feasibility study that really amounts to a mine plan. If the Feasibility Study says it has a good return on investment, you have a mineable deposit. Go see if you can find financing. If you can complete that in under a decade, you are a genius.
Obviously a lot of work remains before this one gets to that stage.