RE:Resources Required for a Surface Only Mine - Thoughts? AW1 has to find enough ore - sorry I can't help you with the figures/estimates on that, I'm not a geo or a mining exec - then they have to produce the docs/reports delineating everything and get permitted, which can take years. Then they have to finance it and that financing is Multiples of the financing it takes to do the exploring.
So to be blunt, I don't think AW1 can get to a mine. It's a decade or more away and everything has to go just right for that entire decade. The shallow DSO plan is very much a longshot plan imo. The reason most junior exploreco's don't make a penny for investors isn't just that they don't find the minerals, but that even when they do find them, the path from finding them to building an actual producing/profitable mine is literally a minefield (no pun intended). So much has to go right and it has to do so for many years running.
The best hope for investors here is the dd finds some deep sed-hosted strikes this year that get a major interested in a takeout, a major that can fast track permitting, handle financing, etc. and make money at a site that can only be worked 4-5 months a year. A sustained high copper price due to supply/demand issues would help. For people invested at these minimal prices, this would produce a handsome profit.
JMO, YMMV, etc.