Most mining engineers I talk to say the drills have to turn to bring the value, and that very little credit will be given for magnetic imaging and possible targets, no matter the advances the last few decades.

Chops, I think that may have been true in the past when these new technologies were relatively unproven but things are changing today and mining companies are giving more weight to them. Otherwise, why did we waste millions and several drill seasons just to explore potential when we could of been doing more infill drilling to move known inferred to M&I? Wouldn't that have been better bang for the buck? I don't believe ES is a dummy. His strategy is to get maximum dollar value for a buyout. In his mind he must believe that showing the huge potential would be much more valuable than just firming up M&I catagories and producing a better looking BFS on paper.