Hi Sculpin
I have no background in mining as I am a telecom engineer. The only useful thing about that in the context of this board is that I can still remember some of my vector calculas (I guess my tuition was worth it..lol). When I first started doing my DD I focussed on some of the theory behind the quantec studies (some of which was developed in the 1960's). My confidence was boosted when I found that some of that was a spin off from the theory developed by the Schlumberger brothers. In the work that I do, I find that technology is finally catching up to the math and theory that was derived more than a century ago (in the case of the wireless communications some of the math was developed in the late 1700's).
I am always interested in new applications of "old" theories and math, if the applications succeed, they tend to be major "game changers". As an example I remember reading an article 8 years ago on how light reflected of butterfly wings and at that time how it had the potential to be applied to new LCD displays. This is being applied today to some of the new smart phone displays.
The DD posted by people such as yourself has been the primary source of any mining knowledge I have picked up since Q4 2010.
I will be the first to admit this is rather unorthodox. While I have a diversified business background (small tech start up trying to raise VC money to working in regulated industries). In general I have not seen where I had to anything extra to contirbute due to my lack of technical knowledge, or detailed understanding of how the stock market works for junior companies. I have learned a lot about myself and how it is important for me to fight my knee jerk impulses and stick to the original plan.
toot