Taken from another board and just too good not to post here:

The following is a question I posed and the company's response;

I'm curious as to your plan for mining at Bokan mountain. Assuming that this going to be an underground mine, do you forsee any problems in constructing a mine with the deposit being so narrow and so deep? Also, what are your plans in repect to the processing and refinement of the REE ore at Bokan?
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Thanks for you enquiry.

As a note to the above, there is a common misconception that all subsurface mining involves mining vertically into the underground and retrieving the ore upward, effectively working against gravity. On the contrary, much of the historical mining at Bokan has been lateral (ie-into the mountain's steep incline). So, if one were to draw a cross section of such a mountain mine, the stopes would look much like horizontal tunnels into an ant hill (or, if you prefer, lateral ramps into a pyramid, where Bokan Mountain itself is the pyramid). Once the ore is has been transferred laterally to the surface, transportation of the ore down hill to deep water barge is likely to be quite inexpensive, since gravity assists the entire process (and indeed might not require power, other than for a braking system).

Also, mining at Bokan has traditionally been that of a surface/subsurface quarry (where a quarry is defined as a mining method that involves direct excavation and removal, without requiring substantial processing of ore at the mine site before shipping). The reason for this was the nearby presence of deep water access at Bokan, which greatly reduced the need to beneficiate the ore (ie -process, refine and lighten the ore by removing gangue material by metallurgical process or otherwise). So, in essence, the ore at Bokan could be effectively "chipped" out of the mountain and shipped immediately thereafter, by deep water barge located almost directly at mine mouth, without much in the way of processing facilities on site.

Quarries are among the least involved mining methods to obtain permitting for, since there is likely to be no heavy processing (and the resultant tailings facilities) to contend with. Deep water acess means that permitting is further simplified, since any required intermediate road construction is minimal. The stoping method of mining into a mountainous incline (also known as "drifting") is among the least expensive means of subsurface mining, since gravity does a great deal of the work.

So, in summary, we have a template for mining and shipping at Bokan, already time tested by the Ross Adams Mine, which has been proven to be not just economic, but appealing from the perspective of logistics and permitting as well.

Thanks for your interest in Ucore.

Best regards,