Elmer’s office in Calgary is right in the middle of the oil patch. Many oil people familiar with horizontal drilling, fracturing, etc. are in his office building. In situ mining intended for Van Dyke is akin to unconventional oil development such as SAGD, fracturing, pressure pumping, and chemical stimulation.

Perhaps Elmer is taking his cue from the oil industry.Perhaps he has new ideas from in situ oil extraction that can be applied to in situ mining. If other copper producers in the area did not have such a vision, that would explain why they did not snap up Van Dyke. I am no expert on this, but has any mining company tried horizontal drilling with well pairs – one an injector of chemicals to liquefy the copper and the other a collector to bring the solution back up?

Sombrero Butte, like Schaft Creek, is a porphyry deposit in the open. Being beneath a town, Van Dyke is a different. It requires different, unconventional mining techniques.