Ann: Drilling hits visible gold over 1km deep below Never Never, page-96

Hey Prisoner,
If I can keep it short...
GCY of old should indeed not have built the plant for the deposit they had at that time... cost me a lot of money, opportunity cost, trust and time.
In any case, what matter now is what is profitable. The days of old when producers focused on the amount of ounces above everything else are gone, the new mantra is profitable ounces. Simple as that.

To fill the mill at 2.5mtpa, they would need a large amount of open pit ounces, which... yes the Gibley's pit has, but... to access them would require a large cutback (GCY planed to do Stage 3, at a cost of $80m... my guess is it would be double that now).

Far better for SPR to focus on profitable ounces, hence, the focus on U/G ore sources. Not sure if you follow the likes of WGX, but, they only operate U/G mines and fill their 4mtpa processing capacity (with some stockpiles too). Large tonnage U/G mines are quickly becoming the mines of choice because you simply don't have low strip open pits anymore (of scale is key).

The above on scratches the surface for a real answer, but I hope it helps as a starting point.