Well, you have to wonder whether they actually need this extra...

Well, you have to wonder whether they actually need this extra area to prospect considering how many they already have atm. Generally, metal is found with a higher purity vertically deeper down than it is horizontally wide. I mean if everyone no matter where you stood on the Earth dug directly straight down deep enough we would all hit pure iron in the centre of the earth. But if everyone searched horizontally wide with zero depth then no matter how far we all fanned out we wouldn't necessary find any metal of much purity at all...

So, I guess it all comes back to striking a balance and I just wonder if they've tipped the balance too far in favour of horizontal area now instead of developing the areas they already own to go deeper down vertically...