I believe Koolan was mined by BHP from the mid-1960's until they closed it down about 1994. So it was mined for about 30 years. I worked there in 1988 and 1989.
Your description on the way the ore body arrives at Irvine is pretty good. It was Cockatooo that needed the seawall for Portman to resume operations. Koolan didn't need one because the ore body, while quite vertical (the main pit) was a little inland, thus the side of the island provided the "seawall". Mt. Gibson would have had to build a small seawall to close the gap BHP blasted (or dug) between the main pit and the ocean when they left the island rehabilitated.
In relation to your commenst on Cethana.... I have just answered parmelio's questions that I took to be about the drilling at the Devon mine on the Dove River lease (because he mentioned rock chips).
if the question was about Cethana then the same answers apply. Cethana is a much bigger anomaly than Devon, but deeper. Your answer on Cethana is spot on in regards to what the first hole should acheive.... If we hit paydirt with the first hole, then great.... if not the hole will give us important pointers on where the next hole should go. This will be backed up by the IP program.
Regards, Tony.
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