Hi Eshmun,
My post does mention both these issues in oblique/cursory ways which for various reasons I didn't expand on.
"PDI's tenements may be less developed than BYR's DYOR" Thanks for doing that above.
Also
"Why the prospect (DM) was not developed beyond this would need more research but the lack of a significant mine could be a slight negative." Again you have added detail which was missing in what is a highly speculative point.
A few musings on speculation.
Speculation will happen but only action will produce the next level of significance and a new speculation. PDI was 0.001c? sometime last year and some here speculated successfully, it is now 1.7c and where will it go from here. When will the next ANN come out?
The presence of almost any old workings on a tenement does tend to attract explorationists who wonder 'did the old timers missed the mother lode?' Will my new bag of tricks bring me success where they appear to have failed, given up, taken it all?. This is how exploration works in 'brownfield' situations.
It is 'always' possible IMO to speculate. IMO speculation is almost the life blood of HC. What do you think the SP, POG etc will do? Some educated, researched comments can be made to these and other issues but IMO since there is never 100% certainty (other than in Hindsight) it is a form of speculation.
That there was major mining in Katanga by the Belgian Colonials could be that the Copper/Co/U deposits are huge, very high grade and much more easy locate and develop with the existing technology than gold deposits.
With the advent of bulk mining techniques and modern exploration tools Randgold, Anglogold Ashanti and Banro, as some examples from the DRC, have certainly had success finding gold deposits. While I don't know the details I would expect there was evidence of some artisanal and/or colonial workings near some, if not all, of these recently developed deposits/mines .
(20min delay)