Right on Hog!

The facts are that as we stand today, Tesoro is at very least a small to medium gold mine property. From the two tiny earthworks that bottomed out at a maximum allowable depth of 100m, over 1000 oz of gold have been derived. The original 5000 acre Tesoro has at least 50 veins totaling 9km. The Glucksein & Silverspoon Report of last June gives the Tesoro a Projected Reserve Estimate of 2.5 million oz of gold.

http://www.steliasmines.com/storage/news_releases/SLI%20Analyst%20Report%20-%20June%2022,10.pdf

To put that into perspective, Tesoro could be a 100,000 oz annual producer over a 25 year life span or 250,000 over 10 years. Not exactly chump change. Now compare that to Barrick's Canadian Hemlo Mine. It is a hybrid, open pit / underground mine in the gold belt north of Thunder Bay. 2010 production was at 242,000 oz with a probable reserve of 1.4 million oz.

http://www.barrick.com/GlobalOperations/NorthAmerica/Hemlo/default.aspx

This quick and dirty comparison can show that Tesoro is a viable property for a big player. As stated in the beginning, Tesoro is a mineable property. The only question left to answer is how big. There is titillating indications it could be an elephant.